Sev book 1: Severus Prince and the Marauders
by slytherinsal
Summary: Severus Snape wants to help his friend Lily Evans, and this means bearding his Prince Grandfather and asking if there is a way to boost Petunia into being magical. Joining the train with the Evans girls, Sev, now adopted 'Prince', makes friends with 4 boys and antagonises a prefect called Malfoy. Runes abound. Rated out of paranoia. No slash. Evans girls as Evans. Book 2 under way
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: as always, I own nothing of JKR's and thank her for permitting us to play with her characters and explore the possibilities of her magical world._

 _Right, people keep asking me about the Kraitverse, and don't always bother to even give themselves a name for me to search so I haven't been able to answer. If you must sign in as guest, please put your name as known here if you want me to answer, otherwise I shan't be able to. Anyway, the answer is, I am working on year 17. Even I run out of ideas on a particular theme occasionally. It is in train. It will get there._

 _This will hopefully be a series of 7 stories. I have started year 2._

 **Chapter 1**

"And what makes you think I want to see a grubby, ill-dressed brat with greasy hair?" demanded the big, dark, saturnine man with a nose made for staring down and long, silky black hair.

Severus tried not to quail.

"You may have disowned my mother, but I am your great grandson, and I wanted your advice because you are supposed to be a rune master," he said. "However, if you aren't as good as they say, I'm wasting my time."

"Oho, you have fangs, do you? Not as snivelling as you look," said Tiberius Prince. "I disowned your mother for consorting with that muggle. You're his mongrel brat. Why should I talk to you?"

"Because I may be a half-blood Prince but I am a Prince," said Severus. "My mother made a mistake, and she knows it. But she won't make up the rift."

"And you will?"

"Only because I need your advice to help a friend. I can live without your influence."

"Huh. Proud enough. Who's your friend?"

"Her name is Lily Evans."

"I don't know an Evans family."

Severus put up his chin.

"She's muggle born which is a whole world away from being a muggle," he said. "She's a clever witch and she picked up what I already showed her very quickly."

"So why does she need a rune master?"

"Because … it's a long story."

"You'd better come in. I'll find you better clothes than that too, what is your mother thinking of?"

"She tries to dress me as a muggle to blend in, but she won't listen to me, or to my father about what muggles really wear. I know it's a woman's blouse but she doesn't care. If she was going to marry a muggle, she should at least have learned about muggles."

"Yes, you should be wearing those deplorable blue trousers like goblin trousers made from that French cloth, from Nimes."

Severus translated this with difficulty into 'denims' and nodded.

"If I agree to give you help, I adopt you and you change your name," Tiberius said. "And I don't like your friendship with a mudblood."

"Oh, well, apparently your abilities are overrated," snapped Severus. "If you can't see that an accident of birth can throw up someone quite as good as a pure blood, the same as accident of birth can produce a genius of music."

"Touchy little bugger, sit down and tell me about it."

"Very well, sir. It can't do any harm to tell you, and then I can despise you when you can't help." Severus hoped the bravado might goad his grandfather; and if it did not, then at least he had got some retaliation in first.

He had his ears boxed magically for that one, and was pleased not to flinch. The black glittering eyes glared at him.

"Used to blows are you?" said his great grandfather. Severus shrugged a thin shoulder.

"Mother jinxes father so he gets drunk and beats us both," he said. "I feel sorry for him sometimes, but he shouldn't have got mixed up in something he can't understand. He likes betting on Quidditch well enough."

"He can see it then? Well that's more than a lot of muggles."

"Perhaps that's why I'm good," said Severus, greatly daring. He circled his finger in the air and held out his palm. A small snake appeared as he said, "serpensortia."

"Merlin's beard! Yes, you're talented."

"I can brew most of the potions from Libatious Borage too."

"That's NEWT level!"

"I love potions."

"Very well. What does … Lily Evans … need?"

"Lily has a sister, a year older, called Petunia. She loves Petunia very much, but Petunia has no magic. I … I wondered if anything blocked it, or … or if it was inherent in the family if it could be awakened."

"Merlin's bollocks! And you want me … ME! To turn a muggle into a witch?"

"No, sir, I want you to see if you can find a way of awakening magic in a repressed witch. I … I think Petunia might have suppressed her own magic because it scared her when she was younger."

"I see. That's a different proposition entirely. She might be a squib."

"Squibs only happen in pure blood families. And I bet a lot of so called squibs might not be."

"An interesting suggestion. Some children are late developers. Your grandfather was. He didn't manifest magic until someone threw a stinging hex at him in Diagon Alley, when we were getting his school kit. I almost had to pay wergild then though, he went berserk."

"Sounds like mother can be when things don't go her way."

"Yes, she sulked mostly when she was growing up but she could be a spitfire, boy, don't you ever wash your hair?"

Severus shrugged.

"Not any more, not since I got in the way of an ever-grease jinx," he said. "Mother was casting it at father because she thought he had a girlfriend, and she missed."

"And couldn't she even remove it?"

"I don't think she felt like it. I'd taken his part for once because I knew where he was when she accused him of having a floozy. He was at a motorbike show, but she can't get how muggles feel about motorbikes the way some wizards feel about racing brooms."

"A foot in both camps eh? Well, well. That might prove useful if we ever need muggleborn and their families supporting us. _Finite incantatum! Scourgify!_ There, your hair should be better now."

Severus gasped and touched the lustrous silky hair that now resembled that of his great grandsire.

"Thank you sir! And what about … about Petunia?"

"You can bring her here, and her sister. I'll arrange you a voice-activated portkey."

OoOoOo

"Petunia, if I could arrange for someone to help you to be a witch like Lily, will you stop riding her and calling me names?"

Petunia looked at Severus suspiciously.

"You're trying to make me make a fool of myself and then you'll laugh at me," she said.

"On my honour, no," said Severus.

"Well, why would you? You don't like me."

"No, but it makes Lily unhappy to see you griping at her," said Severus. "I don't personally care if you remain a muggle all your life and … and marry the roughest, nastiest docker in the world who beats on you. But I care about Lily, and if you aren't cross with her for being able to do something you can't, we might be able to be civil to each other."

Petunia eyed him.

"What would I have to do?"

"Come and meet my great grandfather," he said. "Here; this will take us all to him." He got out the cog that was a portkey. "Put a finger on it, both of you."

Lily did so without hesitation, and Petunia, after a moment, did so too.

"Prince Mansion!" said Severus.

They landed with a bump, and Petunia was about to shout at Severus for making her look ridiculous when she realised he looked as silly as she did, sprawling on the marble floor.

"I have been persuaded to this against my better judgement," said Tiberius Prince. He waved his wand. "Ah! Yes, Severus my boy, your estimation was correct, Miss Lily Evans has as much power as any pure blood witch. And more than some of the more inbred at that," he added. "Miss Petunia Evans… indeed has the potential. It's going to be a tricky business. It will take some hours."

"Our parents don't know we are here, sir," said Lily.

"No matter; we'll use a time-turner to make it seem as though no time has passed so as not to worry them unduly," said Prince. "I will need to use an old technique, virtually lost, of chanting, as well as runes drawn indelibly into Miss Evans' skin; and to look into her mind with legilimensy to open her mind to her abilities."

"Will it hurt much?" asked Petunia.

"Yes, somewhat, but then a lot depends on how much you want to use magic," said Prince, cynically.

"I … I can take it," said Petunia.

"Good girl. I will tattoo invisibly … the least improper would be on your forearm," said Prince.

Petunia cried silent tears, but gritted her teeth not to cry out, and Lily held her hand. After a moment's hesitation, Severus took the other hand.

And when that was over, Prince stalked around her, chanting sonorous words in a language Severus did not even recognise. Ancient runes would be something to concentrate on as well as his beloved potions, it seemed. And then Prince squatted down, looked into Petunia's eyes, and her eyes widened in a mix of fear and wonder.

"Now hold up one finger, say 'lux' like you mean it, and concentrate on it lighting up," he said.

Petunia giggled.

"Lux is the brand of soapflakes mum uses for washing," she said.

"Well obviously it's named in Latin to show that the whites come out bright," said Severus. "Don't think about that, or you'll wash your hands instead of getting a light."

Petunia gave him a half smile, visibly concentrated on clearing her mind, and said, firmly,

" _LUX!"_

The glow was faint, and there was a distinct smell of hot soap, but it was an effect. Petunia squealed with delight and threw herself on Tiberius Prince and hugged him. He looked horrified. Then she hugged Severus, who knew he had the same expression as his great grandfather. And Lily hugged Petunia..

And then they were being sent back, with the aid of a time turner, and fell in a heap in the park, with the sun in the same place it had been when they left.

"I could sleep for a week," said Petunia.

"Me too," said Lily.

"And me," agreed Severus. "He talked about adopting me, you know."

"Well, he's a better man than your rotten parents," Lily opined.

Severus was not sure about that. He was a more useful guardian, but he strongly suspected that Tiberius Prince knew more about the Dark Arts than his mother did. But then, knowing about the Dark Arts meant that one was better prepared against them. One did not have to use them . Much.

OoOoOo

"Headmaster, something unprecedented has happened," Minerva McGonagall looked flustered.

"And what is that, Minerva?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he tried to second guess what might have so rattled the Scots witch.

"You remember the muggle girl who wrote to you that she wanted to come and try to do magic like her sister? Petunia Evans?"

"She hasn't managed to run away to come here personally?" Dumbledore looked concerned.

"No, Headmaster; but her name has appeared in the book next to that of her sister," said Minerva.

"Well bless my soul!" said Dumbledore, truly taken aback. "Are you sure? I'm sorry, Minerva, of course you are sure," as the animagus gave him a very cat like stare over the top of her glasses. "My goodness! I wonder if I should go to see her?"

"I think it might not be wise," said Minerva. "Just send her out a letter to tell her that as her circumstances have changed, she is to acquire the kit on her sister's kit list and present herself at school."

OoOoOo

"But how…" Mr. Evans scratched his head in puzzlement as he read the letter the owl had brought to his older, difficult daughter, who had so resented Lily's talent.

"Severus Snape says some people are late developers," said Petunia, who had no intention of confessing to her parents that she had let a strange man put a tattoo, even an invisible one, on her arm. "He … he helped me to find magic."

"Oh Tuney, we are proud of you, for swallowing your pride to let him help you," said Mrs. Evans. "He's such an odd little boy."

"He dresses better now his grandfather has taken an interest," said Petunia. Tiberius Prince had insisted that he could live without the 'great' in his title as it made him feel old. "Mr. Prince is adopting him, so he'll be Severus Prince, but Mrs. Snape is making difficulties."

It was a rather strained atmosphere in the Snape household; Tiberius had given Severus enough muggle money to outfit himself in reasonable style, which Severus did in Marks and Spencer, being good quality without being pretentious. Tiberius himself took him to Diagon Alley to have decent wizarding clothes made by a young modiste calling herself Madam Malkin. Eileen Snape had thrown a serious hissy fit when Severus turned up with all these clothes, and a Prince family elf, Tessi, to help carry them. She had been most put out when Tessi had prevented her from vanishing Severus' new acquisitions and threw her against a wall to stop her attacking Severus.

"Master Tiberius says Tessi is not to let the disowned one hurt Master Severus!" declared Tessi. "Tessi is pleased to obey! When the disowned one was Mistress Eileen, she wasn't very nice to Tessi, and Tessi remembers!"

Tobias Snape had fared no better.

"Well if this high and mighty grandfather wants the muling brat he can take him into his own house," he grumbled, from the position where he was crumpled up on the floor.

"My grandfather offered me his home," said Severus, fighting tears, "But I told him that I owed you both something as my parents, and I wanted you to know that I had managed to heal the breach with him. If you don't want to be a Prince any more, mother, then I will go and live with him."

Eileen Snape had screeched at Severus, and the boy found himself in a bedroom grander than he could ever have imagined, and Tessi sorting his clothes away.

"Master Tiberius said he thought that might happen, Master Severus," said the elf. "Tessi had orders to bring you to the room he has prepared for you. This is your home, now."

"Oh Tessi! I do want to meet with Lily, and I suppose with Petunia, and what will happen about school?"

"I is to take you to school until the end of term and to visit your friends when you want, except when Master Tiberius is teaching you," said Tessi.

"Oh thank you, Tessi!" said Severus.

OoOoOo

The lessons were not just in magic. Severus had to learn the etiquette of the oldest and highest families, because if he was to be a Prince, the line would not die out with his mother's father, and Tiberius intended his great-grandson to be a worthy heir. Severus endured such training in order to learn what he really wanted to learn; Ancient Runes and Chanting. With a combination of runic and chanted magic, it mattered little that he had not yet got a wand.

And then the visit to Diagon Alley, to be outfitted as befitted a scion of one of the secondary noble houses, provided even the wand.


	2. Chapter 2

_Many thanks if you reviewed, FF is telling me once again that the link to reviews to reply is invalid, so it's not me being rude, it's fanfiction. I appreciate every one and when it gets over this, I will reply and answer any questions, meantime I'll thank you on the top of the next chapter. Technology, eh? it has chizpurfles which plainly have some kind of influence over quanta.  
_

 **Chapter 2**

"I think we'll avoid explanations by letting people assume we're twins," said Lily to Petunia as they walked boldly through the barrier onto platform nine-and-three-quarters. Petunia frowned.

"But I'm the oldest, I should be looking after you and making decisions," she said.

Lily giggled.

"We know I'm the one who always chooses what to do, and we can say that you're the oldest. As I was born on your birthday we can pretend that it was just hours because you were born at midday and I was born at teatime. And it can happen like that."

"Well …."

"Tuney, if they know you're in the first year when you're a year older than everyone else, they'll ask questions, and if you think I'm naïve enough not to assume that there'll be bullies who pick on little kids, I'm not, I expect wizards have bullies too. Can you imagine Mrs. Snape as a fifth former?"

Petunia shuddered.

"Only too well," she said.

"Well then!" said Lily. "Oh look, there's Sev! He's in his school robes already!"

Severus waved and ran up. The few weeks of proper care had already done wonders for him; his hair was neatly cut and tied back into a pony tail, and his sharp features had filled out somewhat, and his skin was better than it had been on the lower class diet of northern England, consisting largely of batter as a filler. He had received a manicure at some point as well, though Lily and Petunia had no idea how big an argument that had caused, Severus being imbued somehow with the idea that it was 'sissy'. He was losing the attitudes his father had tried to beat into him, and was so full of what he had been learning, he actually beamed at Petunia, and hugged her as hard as he hugged Lily.

"You look as though being adopted by your grandfather agrees with you, Sev," said Lily.

"It's nice not to be beaten without being sure what it's for, or jinxed for being in the way," said Severus. "Grandfather beat me once, but only when he was sure I knew what it was for."

"What was it for?" Petunia asked.

"Going into the library he forbade me to go into," said Severus. "There are books in there with traps for the mind in the very writing, and others that attack you if you touch them."

"Goodness!" Lily and Petunia exchanged a glance, taken aback by such things. "I bet you won't be going in there again."

"Not until I'm old enough to know how to safeguard myself and with grandfather there to back me up," said Severus. "I'm officially starting as Severus Prince though," he added proudly.

They entered a compartment with two dark-haired boys, one neat, and one with untidy hair, but with that air of contentment that only comes with a happy family. The neat boy had clothes of the best, but his sneer was not unlike the one Severus recognised on himself as armour.

"It'd be cool to be sorted into the same House as each other," said Severus, ignoring the boys. "My family are usually Slytherin."

"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, shouldn't you?" the messy boy said to the other.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," said the neat, sneering boy.

"Blimey," said the messy one, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

"Do your family beat on you like Sev's?" asked Petunia.

"Thanks, Tuney, tell all my shameful secrets to strangers," said Severus. Petunia flushed.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"My family are pure evil," said the expensive boy. "My name is Sirius Black, scion of the Noble Family Black and I am not allowed to forget it. I think I might break tradition and pick another house than Slytherin. Where are you headed?" he addressed the messy one.

" _Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart_. James Potter; my family are always Gryffs."

"You are brave, Sev, for making your grandfather adopt you, to help us out," said Lily.

Severus wavered.

"My grandfather's been good to me, and he was in Slytherin," he said. "I wouldn't want to be disloyal."

James grinned suddenly, which made him an altogether much more attractive character.

"You know, Sev, mate, that's the best reason to be in a house, loyalty to someone you love. I can understand that. Tell you what! If you go into Slytherin because of your grandfather, how about we don't let it get between us?"

"All right," said Severus. "And if the hat puts Black into Slytherin whatever he wants, we can look out for each other. I guess we both know about bad family."

Sirius gave him a measuring look.

"I'm going to wish for Gryffindor," he said. "Aren't you going to introduce us to the girlfriends?"

Severus flushed.

"Petunia and Lily Evans," he said, correctly naming the older girl first, even though his inclination was to speak of Lily first.

"Evans? I don't know the name," said James.

"We're muggleborn," said Lily.

"And if the noble and whatever family Black wants to use offensive terms about them, I'll fight him," said Severus.

"Look, my family may hate mu…muggleborn, but that to me is a recommendation to like them," said Sirius. "What was your full monicker?"

"Severus Prince," said Severus.

"I thought the line had died out."

"You thought wrong," snapped Severus.

Sirius shrugged.

"My mistake; nothing to get uptight about. At least you aren't a girl and they aren't going to try to betroth us."

"I'm a half-blood anyway; my father's a muggle. Not even muggle-born."

Sirius whistled.

"So that's the source of your home troubles? Lack of compatibility?"

"Not really your business."

"No, but then if we both have rotten parents, it sort of makes it shared business. Mine are just … lousy. Controlling. More interested in my blood than me as a person."

"I guess that sucks," said Severus.

"And to think we thought that everything would be wonderful for everyone if you only had magic to make things right!" said Lily.

"It don't work like that," said Sirius. "People are people and most of them are shits."

Petunia gasped at the word.

"That's swearing!" she said.

"Sure. Don't you swear?"

"No!" said Petunia.

James grinned.

"Give the kid a break, Sirius, they look such nice precious little girls."

"Oy!" said Lily. He winked at her.

"You look pretty precious yourself," said Severus.

James laughed.

"Well, I suppose I am; only child of older parents," he said.

At that moment they were interrupted by a small boy erupting into the compartment. He was a chubby child yet somehow rat-like.

"Bullies on their way!" he gasped, and dived under the seat.

The door opened again, and a slender, sneering boy with sleek blond hair looked in. He wore a prefect badge. Severus got out his notebook and started scribbling.

"Heard there's a couple of pure bloods on the train; a Black and a Prince," he said.

"I'm Black; what of it?" said Sirius.

"And I'm Prince. What of it?" Severus spoke, heart pounding.

"Don't talk to a prefect like that! Just telling you that you'd both better be in Slytherin House, that's all. And if you see a fat little rat called Pettigrew you can punish him for me for saying I shouldn't be a prefect."

"Well he's right about that," said James. "You shouldn't be a prefect if you act like that." That tended to explain who the child they were hiding might be.

"I'm inclined to agree with him, too, actually," said Sirius. "And by the way this is my pure bred friend James Potter. We were planning on going into Gryffindor."

The pale face flushed in anger and Lucius Malfoy raised his wand. Whatever spell he cast, however, did nothing but make him yelp and clutch his wand hand with the other.

"You brats will pay for this at some point," he said venomously, and slammed out.

"What happened?" asked James.

"I put up a runic ward," said Severus, showing them the piece of paper which now smoked where his runes had charred from the effort of protecting them.

There was a long silence.

"Sev, mate, are you sure you want to be in Slytherin?" asked Sirius.

"Not having met one of its prefects," said Severus, calmly. "Pettigrew, you were brave defying him, you can come out now."

The chubby boy emerged, giving admiring glances around all of them.

"Yeah, it took courage," said Sirius. "You can join our gang if you like."

"We have a gang?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Sure we have a gang. At least, girls don't gang …"

"They're in or I'm not," said Severus. "Lily is a very clever witch and if we are going to band together against bullies, I don't want a nasty type like that whoever he was to be ready to hurt them. They're my friends."

"Really, Severus?" Petunia looked gratified.

"Yeah," said Severus. She had been a different girl since she could do magic too, even though her _lux_ spells did still emit soapy bubbles.

"And if we want to fight bullies, the more the merrier," said Lily.

"All right," said James. "I'm happy with that. And we want to know how you did that." He indicated the charred paper.

"It's all in runes," said Severus. "You can do almost anything with runes, if you put enough into them. Only the surface they are on kinda determines how long they last. On paper one fairly small jinx was enough. And it was a stinging hex; I didn't know it would mirror it back, so that was more than I'd hoped. On wood it might stop a more powerful jinx, or several minor ones, and in stone it would stop a heap more, especially if you activated the runes with blood."

"That's blood magic; it's dark magic," said Sirius.

"No it isn't," said Severus. "Grandfather told me it can be dark magic if you take blood without asking. If it's your own in a protective rune, like … like Egil Skallagrimsson when he smeared his own blood into the protective rune on a poisoned cup, it's not dark."

"Oh! Well you learn something every day," said Sirius.

"My grandfather is a rune master," said Severus. "I want to be a potions master, but runes and chanting are jolly useful. You can improve potions with them too."

"You don't get to study runes until the third year and get to take electives," said Sirius. "Will you teach us?"

"Sure," said Severus. They would be unlikely to surpass him; it took effort and will to use runes properly. Lily had learned quite a lot, but Petunia got bored from having to learn other languages.

"It's jolly hard," said Petunia. "Sev showed us some stuff in the hols."

"But at least we know how to put anti-tamper runes on our trunks and kit, so nobody can sabotage them," said Lily.

Severus quickly taught this one to the other three boys, and trunks were quickly marked up with the runes, under the strict eye of Severus, correcting when the line was wrong. James and Sirus went to collect Peter Pettigrew's trunk, and came back with a second trunk and a skinny, ill-looking boy.

"Those bullies were beating on Remus Lupin here," said James intensely. "Listen you lot! If you really believe in beating bullies, will you accept him, even though he has a serious illness?"

"Of course," said Lily.

"How did you know?" cried Lupin, paling.

"Ijit! I used Scarpin's revellaspell - that's a useful one I know – to see what jinxes they'd put on you," said James. "Remus is a werewolf, and if I make my guess, that means he's going to have to be sequestered every full moon, and it'll be up to us to look after him."

"Do werewolves exist then?" asked Lily.

"Well, obviously!" said James. "They're dark creatures, you know, but I can't see a kid our age being a dark creature."

"I was bitten by Fenrir Greyback when I was five," said Remus. All those of the wizarding world shuddered, and the Evans girls exchanged looks.

"It sounds as though he's someone you've heard of," said Lily.

"Yeah, he's bad news," said James. "He's a seriously dark wizard. He likes to change form near children if he can, to cause most trouble. Does the headmaster know, Remus mate?"

Remus nodded.

"He has to know, he has set me up a place to go. It's a place called the Shrieking Shack. I get to go there right before the full moon and stay there until I get my senses back. He says there's a chap named Damocles Belby who is trying to invent a potion to help werewolves keep their brains together."

Severus' dark eyes gleamed.

"Perhaps we can make one ourselves," he said. "And use runes to help you too."

Runes had to be explained again, and Remus was thrilled. Severus saw an academic like himself in the boy, and knew he had a new friend.

"Right. We are seven, which is a jolly good arithmantic number," said James. "I vote we swear to support each other through thick and thin, and I reckon we ought to get into as much trouble as we can with jokes and japes so that we can give Remus here a bit of fun to give him some good times to combat the bad ones every month."

"Yeah," said Petunia, "And to think I thought the woman thing mummy explained was bad enough."

"It'd be easier to hide if he was a girl," said Lily. "As some girls are ill enough once a month to need to go to bed. But we can all take notes and cover for you, Remus. And actually, Tuney, as we know Remus' big secret, should we share yours?"

Petunia scowled, then nodded.

"It's Sev's tale really," said Lily.

Severus pulled a face, and explained how he was delighted to have a young witch living near him in the muggle town where his parents lived, and how Petunia was actually a year older than Lily but had not manifested magic; but that her magic was in her blood, and his grandfather had been able to bring it out with a runic tattoo."

"Crumbs!" said James. "That's powerful stuff. I'm glad you're magical too, now, Petunia."

"Thanks," said Petunia.

Severus felt slightly sorry for Peter Pettigrew who was just one of the group, and not a special friend with anyone, as Sirius and James seemed to have hit it off in a big way, and Petunia and Lily were joined at the hip. Well, he had a good family now, so he could afford to be kindly to Peter, who didn't seem to have much of a homelife either.

And then the train was pulling in to the station; they had arrived at Hogwarts!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Severus was the last of the Marauders, a name suggested by James Potter for their gang, to sit under the hat, shortly after Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. All his confederates were in Gryffindor. He put the hat onto his head with a gasp.

" _ **The last Prince! Your family always goes into**_ …."

" _I want Gryffindor,_ " said Severus, hastily, inside his head.

" _ **Gryffindor! Well, well, we have a brave young one to defy convention and to stand up for friends; very well,**_ **GRYFFINDOR**!" it added the last word out loud.

Severus heaved a sigh of relief. The sleek, blonde head of Lucius Malfoy, at the Slytherin table was scowling at him, as at Sirius Black. Severus high-fived Sirius.

"We escaped!" he whooped, jubilantly.

"Yeah, mate, we did," said Sirius.

OoOoOo

The austere witch with glasses, who had been in charge of calling out their names for the sorting hat, was named, they discovered, Minerva McGonagall, and she was their new house head. She looked over her glasses at the new arrivals.

"Weel, we've never had a Black in Gryffindor before; nor yet a Prince," she said.

Sirius gave her a cheeky grin.

"Don't worry, Ma'am, we'll raises some hell for the Slythers," he said.

"I dinnae doot that," sighed McGonagall. "Seein' as ye're already friends wi' Mr. Potter, whose father was at school in my time. Mr. Prince, ye're no' an associate of yon precious pair?" she nodded to James and Sirius with companionable arms draped over each other's shoulders.

"Yes ma'am," said Severus. "We're against bullies."

"Weel, it's a good scheme," said McGonagall. "Congratulations, Miss Evans, on finding your magic, better late than never."

Petunia blushed.

"Thank you, ma'am," she said. Petunia wondered if Madam McGonagall knew that she had written to Professor Dumbledore, begging to be allowed to come with her sister; and had a sneaking suspicion that the middle aged witch had known. How embarrassing! And yet, she was here on her own magical merits, not at the discretion of the headmaster, and it was thanks to Severus, who had been actually pretty generous in letting bygones be bygones. She surreptitiously reached out to squeeze his hand, and Severus smiled at her.

He would never really like Petunia as well as he did Lily, but she wasn't so bad really, now she wasn't jealous, he reflected.

McGonagall led her new little lions off to give them into the care of a pair of prefects, to be shown to their rooms, and reflected that today's sorting had been quite a surprise. It was particularly interesting to see that the Black boy and the Prince boy, both plainly used to the best from their old and conservative pure blood families – Severus really had filled out to be a healthy looking little boy – were chatting happily to the two muggle born girls, and too to poor Remus Lupin. McGonagall sighed and hoped that the boy would not lose their friendship over having to disappear every month, and being unable to explain why.

However, her sharp ears caught the Prince boy saying,

"And we can look in the library for books on runes, and if nothing else we can inscribe you with runes that make you sleep when the moon is full."

"Is that possible?" Remus was hungry for it.

"Oh, anything is possible with runes," said Severus, airily. "I think it might even be more powerful than potions."

"But will it work on me when I … you know, when my skin isn't my skin any more?"

Severus stopped dead, and had to apologise to the child behind him who walked right into him. He resumed his motion and touched Remus on the arm.

"All we can do is try," he said. "It might need an amulet though."

"So long as it isn't silver," said Remus.

"Don't take this as an insult, but I was thinking of getting an ordinary dog's tag because you can scratch telephone numbers and things – muggle information about finding a dog's home – onto them," said Severus. "Though if it works we'll have to find out how to make something more permanent."

"I'm not insulted, just … just blown away that someone cares," said Remus.

"We all care, all us Marauders," said Severus.

McGonagall suppressed a groan. Marauders? Whatever next, a most unsettling name if all they planned to do was to oppose bullies.

Well, doubtless she would be hearing that name more often.

OoOoOo

"Boil potion? Why do we need to make a boil potion?" muttered James. "I mean, it'd be neat to put in a water bomb to throw at Malfoy, but what is that doing in a real lesson?" He eyed the fat professor with pepper-and-salt hair and a walrus moustache with disfavour.

"It teaches us several stirring techniques that we'll come to use in more useful potions," said Severus, patiently, having read through the text books. "Almost all the potions through to year five are about techniques, how to grind, crush, cut, dice, stir and so on. Some ingredients will give you different results entirely if cut longitudinally than if cut horizontally, and different if cut to crushed, or one method might enhance their efficacy, another reduce it. Nobody is ever going to use most of these early potions but you will get used to the techniques."

"Excellent, my boy!" Professor Slughorn had overheard, and he boomed his approval. "You must come to tea with me, with my little club on Friday."

"Uh … thank you, sir," said Severus, without too much enthusiasm. "I'm sure we'll all be glad to come."

Slughorn opened his mouth to say that the invitation was not universal, but the seven were seated near each other, and he had already considered asking the pretty red head, and her plainer twin, as he thought Petunia was, whose techniques were good, and Sirius Black and James Potter, who were prominent members of society. He could put up with the quiet boy who was the partner of the Prince lad and the child who was actually working quite methodically.

Severus had given both Petunia and Lily some lessons, and Petunia was doing well enough, being used to learning cookery at school. Both Evans girls appeared to have the touch. In fact, none of the Marauders was bad at potioneering, and Peter Pettigrew was delighted to have a class he was actually good at. He had failed to get anywhere with any spells so far in either charms or transfiguration. Flitwick had tutted slightly that Severus, Lily and Petunia used the old fashioned incantation 'Lux' not 'Lumos' but as all of them undoubtedly got light on the end of their wand … and in the case of Petunia, illuminated rising bubbles … he let it go. Severus had not had a problem transfiguring his matchstick into a needle, and nor had James or Lily. Sirius had almost bust a gut not to be outdone by James, but Petunia, Peter and Remus had managed no more than a silvery sheen to their matchstick.

OoOoOo

The Marauders were on the way, a trifle reluctantly, to attend the Slug Club when they heard cries of anguish. Sensible first years of course would have promptly run away, but the Marauders exchanged a glance and ran towards the sounds of trouble.

Two students wearing masks were holding a rather unprepossessing man of middle years up against a wall with their wands, firing stinging hexes at him. One of them was hissing,

"You don't know your place, squib! You should be on your knees to us. Cru…"

He never completed the curse because Severus and Sirius at least knew what it was and by common consent they dove for the bully's knees. The other Marauders went for the other bully.

The spells the first years had at their disposal were somewhat limited, but those who had grown up with muggles knew about dirty fighting, and James, Sirius and Peter seemed to pick it up quickly enough.

Severus had his teeth latched onto the wand wrist of the boy who had been casting the Unforgivable, and Lily and Petunia copied him on each wrist of the other. It did not take the seven youngsters long to subdue their prey, and tie them up with parts of their own clothing. It was not surprising that when the masks were pulled off, one of them turned out to be Lucius Malfoy.

"Oh! The poor cat!" Lily ran to pick up the unconscious body of a tabby cat.

"I know the healing rune," said Severus. "Keep an eye on Malfoy, Peter, and if he moves jam your wand up his arse and cast the stinging hex."

"Y … yes, Severus," said Peter, who didn't know the stinging hex but had no intention of admitting it.

Severus traced runes around the cat on the floor, where they flooded with light. Nothing happened.

"Bugger," said Severus. "I shall have to activate them." He slid out his silver knife and cut the end of his finger, and traced the bloody finger over the runes.

The cat's laboured breathing – her ribs appeared to have been stove in by a kick – became quieter, and she suddenly sat up and mewed.

"Yes, madam, you may leave the circle," said Severus, solemnly. Then he sat down hard.

The cat went and rubbed around the legs of the man

"Young mister, you gave some magic for my Mrs. Norris," said the man.

"I wasn't going to let those bullies win by killing a Squib's kneazle," said Severus. "Please, who are you?"

"I'm Argus Filch; the caretaker, and the likes of them should be flogged."

"I'm inclined to agree," said James Potter. "Picking on squibs is like picking on muggles, it's indefensible and wrong. I say, should one of us go to the headmaster?"

"What's a squib?" asked Lily.

"Someone born to a wizarding family who can't do magic," said James.

"Or has had it blocked with trauma when you consider the way some parents test to see if their kids are manifesting magic yet," said Severus.

"But … isn't it a special need that should be helped?" said Lily.

"Yes, and they have special cats who can sense magic," said Sirius.

"But there are still rotters who pick on anyone different," said Remus. "Were we going to send for the headmaster by the way?"

"Send Lily; she looks the most innocuous," said Sirius.

"Are you insulting my sister?" asked Petunia.

"Merlin no! just that the headmaster is going to take the impassioned plea of one of you two with more seriousness than from one of us boys, and you're too honest to put your head on one side to look winsome," said Sirius.

Petunia was trying to work out whether or not this was an insult as well; sometimes James and Sirius could be a little crass and she and Lily had to sit on them, metaphorically.

"I'm going," said Lily, and went.

"I think we need to take Mr. Filch to the hospital wing," said Severus, anxiously. "I can't do any more runic healing, I'm about drained. Sorry, sir, but your cat was in mortal danger."

"I thank you for saving my cat, don't matter about me," said Filch. "To whom do I owe that?"

"Severus Prince," said Severus, and introduced the others. He hesitated. "Tuney, do you mind if we tell him?"

"No, not at all!" said Petunia, helping Mr. Filch to sit down on the floor and putting an arm around him. "I don't know if you can help him, Sev, but if you can, it's our duty to all learn runes and cure squibs." She turned to Filch. "I was born a muggle. Our parents are muggles. My sister manifested magic, and I didn't. Sev's grandfather helped with runes and a ritual and suddenly, bang! I had magic. And I think we ought to help Mr. Filch by learning the runes."

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Having a cat isn't any good if some arse hurts the cat, and I can't think how hard it would be not to be able to do basic grooming spells."

"You aren't supposed to out of school anyway," said Remus.

"And anyone in the Noble and Ancient Family Black with added arrogance and twiddly bits takes the blindest bit of notice?" said Sirius.

"Oh, I suppose not, you poncey git," said Remus, with a faint smile.

"That's me," said Sirius, cheerfully. "Peter, get ready with that stinging hex, Malfoy thinks he might like to move."

Malfoy's fingers were creeping towards his wand. James kicked it away. He stamped on Malfoy's fingers for good measure.

"Unnecessary, surely, Mr. Potter?" the headmaster's voice sounded.

"I was afraid he might know hand movements in wandless magic and he seemed to be using a ritual finger movement," said James, smoothly.

"Very well, I will accept that excuse," said the headmaster. "Well, well, Malfoy and Rookwood. Argus, would you care to tell me what happened?"

"They caught me unawares, headmaster," said Argus. "Kicked Mrs. Norris so hard, young Mr. Prince had to use runes to stop her dying. And then they were firing spells at me."

"Malfoy started to say the cruciatus curse on Mr. Filch when Sirius and me jumped him," said Severus.

"Lies!" cried Malfoy. "They've confunded Filch to think it was us, when it was them, and we were acting as prefects to stop them, but they used dark magic!"

"We didn't actually use any magic," said Petunia. "We put the boot in muggle-fashion 'cos we don't know enough hexes yet."

"That Prince boy tried to cast a severing hex on my wrist, I felt it!" blustered Malfoy. "That's dark magic!"

"I bit him," said Severus, "At great personal risk of being poisoned."

"The embellishment was unnecessary," said Dumbledore. "Dear me, Lucius, how very disappointed I am in you. I fear that you and Nicodemus are going to be losing your prefect status at least. And of course a very stiff detention."

"They ought to be expelled for trying to kill Mrs. Norris and attacking a staff member," said Petunia.

"They ought to be in Azkaban for trying to use an Unforgivable," said James.

"Thank you, I will manage my school in my own way," said Dumbledore. "One can hope that they will learn the error of their ways."

"Hope springs eternal but clock springs are reliable," muttered Severus.

"Very well, children, I will deal with these miscreants, Argus, can you walk if these excellent children help you up to the hospital wing? I'm sure our new mediwitch Miss Pomfrey is equal to sorting you out. If you cannot …"

"I can walk, headmaster," said Argus, proudly. "And I'm right grateful to these young 'uns, can you give them house points, sir?"

"Of course! One hundred points to Gryffindor!" said Dumbledore, happily.

The youngsters took turns helping Filch.

"What you said about runes … I'd give anything …" he said, hungrily.

"I will talk to my grandfather," said Severus. "I told him I didn't think there was such a thing as a true squib so he might be prepared to come and do it for you. If not, it'll take me a while to learn."

"It hurts for a while but it's worth it," said Petunia. "Oh Sev, do you think your grandfather will come?"

"Well, he was interested in my views, and though it was worth looking into," said Severus. "But it's best not to say too much in case he can't or won't or it doesn't work. I don't know enough to be sure, sir," he added to Filch. "I can only try."

"Ar, and that's a better promise to make than promising the earth," said Filch.

It had been an eventful evening.

"And we missed the damn Slug Club," said Sirius.

"Did we want to go anyway?" said Severus.

"No, but it might be useful to get insights into potions if he likes us," said James. "Let's run quickly and tell Professor Slughorn how we ran into some bullies."

"Yes, but we won't get too specific," said Sirius.

They arrived as the refreshments were being served.

"My dear children! Did you mistake the time?" Slughorn boomed.

"No, sir, we had a run in with some older bullies," said Lily, smiling disarmingly. "But they weren't expecting us to stick together."

"Tut tut! I wonder who they could have been?" said Slughorn.

"Malfoy and Rookwood," said James. "We left them with the headmaster."

"Dear me! And you little ones … remarkable!" said Slughorn.

They beamed at him.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks, Lunaz, there were 3 people with Lunaz as part of their name so I couldn't reply properly. I am also chary of former generation stories, but I had this idea and felt I had to run with it! I'm glad you like it so far, and will continue to do so for as many school years as I manage to write..._

 **Chapter 4**

Sirius raised an eyebrow when James climbed into bed beside him after lights out and activated the 'silent night' charm on the curtains, which allowed students to block out any sounds from outside, and equally blocked any sounds like sobbing coming from their own beds. Plenty of juniors cried on their first time away from home, and the charm was as much for them to maintain their dignity as to permit those who slept lightly to shut out the nightly noises, giggling and chattering of others. As it happened, the Marauders had discussed the charm and decided that it wasn't helpful for anyone crying, or feeling ill to be blocked from their fellows, however useful it might be to have a nice quiet night for sleeping, and they had agreed not to use the charms.

"James, what's up, mate? I thought we were going to leave those things unactivated?" said Sirius.

"I … I'm too ashamed to let Sev or Remus or Peter overhear me," said James.

"What about?" asked Sirius, cautiously activating his wand to shine dimly. There were tear marks on James' face.

"I … Sirius, I've taunted squibs before, and if I had known about Mr. Filch before we got to talk to him, as a person, and if we hadn't automatically opposed Malfoy and wassissface I … I might have suggested pranking him, because of being a squib, and the caretaker and everything. And then Petunia was brave enough, a real Gryffindor! To speak up about not having had magic to give him some hope, and Sev reckons we can do it if his grandfather can't."

"Well he might be able to. I find all this rune malarkey jolly hard going."

"So do I. I … I have the raw talent to shine in most classes without working hard, and I just don't know how Sev sits there for hours, reading, studying, doing the same thing over and over patiently, even when he fails. And I'd never have thought of using blood magic on the squib's kneazle, and what's worse, Sirius, I wouldn't have thought of it even if I knew as much as Sev because …. Sirius, am I as much of a berk as Malfoy?"

Sirius stared at his friend.

"James, mate, you just said all the things I've been thinking. I charged because they were wearing Knights of Walpurgis clothing, they call themselves Death Eaters now, and I know a lot of my family are Death Eaters, and I hate it. And maybe we are berks, and maybe we ought to ask the other Marauders what they think. In …. In case they don't want to associate with us any more. Because pranking squibs almost is next door to being a Death Eater, in a way. "

"Reckon you're right. Oh Sirius, what if they don't want to be friends with us any more? I know we could get heaps of people willing to gang with us for our blood status but … I hadn't felt homesick before but now I'm scared."

"Well, we can't get Tuney and Lily because of the staircases not letting boys up, but we could talk to the other boys, and if they want to throw us out, we can ask them to let the girls have a vote too."

James swallowed, and soon all the Marauders were sitting on Sirius' bed with the curtains drawn so as not to disturb the other sleepers in the dormitory. For all his faults, James never lacked courage, and he managed to struggle through what he feared.

There was a moment's long silence.

"I guess it's something to do with a privileged pure blood upbringing, and not about you at all," said Severus. "Because if that's what your upbringing made you like, you wouldn't know any better. But if you weren't decent types, it wouldn't have worried you, and you'd have sneered at those of us who went against Malfoy for being squib lovers. You overcame a prejudice against muggleborn, and you're defying the prejudice against werewolves. I reckon that says you've had some bad teaching but are proper Marauders for fighting it. Remus? Peter?"

"They don't care about what I am, or about the girls," said Remus. "And maybe we all have prejudices we need to fight. I have to fight my prejudices against purebloods. You know, the ones who'd say I'm not pureblooded any more because I'm tainted."

"And I have to fight mine against muggles, because of my dad," said Severus. "The Evanses are good people."

"I … I taunted a squib once," said Peter, going very red. "I … I'm not as good as the rest of you in most classes, and … and my magic manifested late and it was weak, so … so a squib was the only person to look down on."

"Took balls to tell us that," said Sirius.

"You stick to learning runes, Peter," said Severus, kindly. "You can enhance your magic with runes, and look just as good as anyone else. And if you manifested late, you might just be a late starter all round, and it might take longer to control your magic."

Peter gave him a grateful half smile. Severus did not like Peter as much as he liked the other boys, but he took care never to show it. He knew only too well what it was like to be called useless. His father had done it all the time, and his mother had thrown enough jibes about how a half-blood would never amount to much. It was why he had worked and worked to control his magic, to cast spells without a wand.

"You don't despise us?" asked James, anxiously.

"James, if I hadn't been lucky enough to have my grandfather, I might be making jibes about mudbloods just because they're lower on the social pecking order than half-bloods," said Severus, "And then hating myself for hurting Lily. And Tuney of course, but if … if I hadn't decided I was better than that, she and I might still be hating each other because she couldn't do magic and resented those of us who could. And how much harder it must be for a squib to grow up with a whole family who can do things he can't! We all need to guard against prejudice, though I'm not sure we need to worry about being prejudiced against Death Eaters."

The others sniggered.

"And Slytherin," said Sirius.

"Bite your tongue!" said Severus. "If we hadn't been talking on the train, and got attacked by Malfoy, I would have been a Slytherin out of family loyalty and thought Gryffindors were the beef-brained oafs my mother described them as."

"And you might even have joined their gangs, with the likes of Avery and Mulciber to stop them beating on you, Sev," said Peter.

Severus opened his mouth to say he would never have joined with Avery or Mulciber and shut it again. He was too used to being beaten on by his father to ever deny that he might have picked an easy way to avoid it.

"Yeah, and we need to find out if any of the kids they've got in their gang have done so," he said. "It's a good point, Peter!"

Peter beamed. Being praised by the Marauders' resident genius, in Peter's eyes at least, was wonderful.

OoOoOo

By common consent, the boys said nothing to the Evans girls on the morrow; some things were boy things, and girls didn't always understand how it felt to need to be alpha males. Now they had talked it over, all of them were more comfortable with each other, and with their own feelings. And James and Sirius were especially glad that their attitudes were not going to be aired in front of the girls.

"Sev, are we going to have to cut ourselves every time we need to use runes?" said Lily. "I read in my DADA book that blood magic can be dark magic."

"And you, who always read things carefully, should be aware of two very important words," said Severus. "The words 'can' and 'be'."

"It hadn't escaped me, but I know how enthusiastic you are, Sev, I wouldn't want you accidentally using dark magic," said Lily.

"I shan't," said Severus. "And how can it be dark to make a willing sacrifice to save a life? Though Merlin's beard, I think I overdid it, that cat is frisking like a kitten."

Lily laughed.

"Reckon you gave her more of a lease of life than you intended, my friend. But if you have lost magic yourself …"

Severus frowned, and fired off a simultaneous stinging hex, slug vomiting curse and tickling charm at the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, which jumped, coughed and wriggled uncontrollably. The slugs it spat up became stone and fell to earth with a loud clatter on the flagstones.

"Looks like my magic is intact," said Severus. Lily giggled.

"Sev, are hexes all you know?"

He shrugged.

"Pretty much. Mum used the slug vomiting curse on Dad to sober him up because it made him pump up all he had drunk too. A pretty pair they are!"

"I know a few from my parents too," said Sirius, "But we're all better than them. I wonder who Gregory the Smarmy was?"

James laughed.

"Well we won't find out from old Binns," he said. "Preoccupied with the goblin wars, he is!"

"I'd like to find out if the goblins had a good case, actually," said Petunia. "After all, there are people here who talk about goblins in the same way they use the word 'mudblood' and that makes me feel a fellow feeling. I mean, from our point of view, there's no big difference between goblins and wizards."

James opened his mouth, then a thoughtful look came over his face, and he shut it again.

"Tuney, mate, that's pretty deep," he said.

"James, anything short of a discussion on what's for dinner is deep for you," said Petunia, looking pleased.

"Well, maybe, but it is deep. Us pure bloods, we accept that goblins exist, and that they have a part in society, but they aren't allowed wands, and they are expected to keep to their own areas. Why? And why shouldn't they have wands?"

"Now look what you've done, Tuney," grinned Sirius.

"And why shouldn't we ask questions?" said Petunia. "I know there are traditions, and I don't want to show disrespect to them, but I want to know why some things are done, and 'because they always have' isn't a good enough reason."

"Actually, if we're going to try to make large scale reforms in society, we really need to teach Lily and Petunia the proper etiquettes and how to handle the cream of society in formal ways," said Severus. "My grandfather has been showing me, because mother was never interested, and I think if as a group we can show respect for tradition, we're more likely to be able to get some changes."

"Crumbs, Sev, mate, it goes against the grain, I thought I'd shed all that," said Sirius.

"It might go against the grain, but it would get us more support from the traditionalists," said James. "Those who despise muggleborn for not knowing our traditions, and those who might be drawn into the ranks of the Death Eaters if they thought it stood for order in society."

"Oh no, what has my big mouth let us in for?" groaned Petunia.

"Don't worry, Tuney, it's no worse than what you find in Shakespeare," said Severus.

oOoOo

"You dinna hae tae learrrn a' the formal addresses, ye ken," said Madam MacGonagall, to the Evans girls, when she found them practicing how to curtsey according to the rank of the person they were greeting.

"I think we do, Madam MacGonagall," said Lily. "How can we grow up to have any influence in society if those who have power can write us off as ignorant mudbloods with no appreciation of tradition?"

"Ye shouldnae ca' yersel' that name!" said MacGonagall sharply.

Lily shrugged.

"Others will do so; it's only a word, but if they can truthfully attach the word 'ignorant' to it, then it achieves its own meaning, doesn't it? If we can out-tradition the traditionists, it's not as meaningful an epithet if we can manage a greater level of etiquette than some of their own."

"Weel …." the Scottish witch hesitated.

"Besides, Madam MacGonagall, it's great fun to drop a beautiful curtsey to someone like Narcissa Black, and say 'Well met, daughter of House Black,' and have her forced, wild-eyed, into having to respond in kind, even if it is 'well met, lowly first year of Gryffindor's house'," giggled Petunia.

"Aye, weel, if ye ken that etiquette can be a weapon too…" Minerva MacGonagall shook her head and moved on. She would have sworn that Sirius Black and James Potter had firmly abandoned traditionalism, but maybe they had more sense than she had thought. No. It was the Prince boy, who could see further through a wall than most. And maybe at that it would do no harm; those who would despise the muggleborn girls would despise them anyway, but nobody could say they were not doing their best.

OoOoOo

"So, you are mudbloods, I understand?" said Narcissa to Lily and Petunia.

"It's a filthy epithet for someone of your breeding to use," said Lily, sharply. "I was taught that a real lady never uses coarse language."

Narcissa blinked.

"You … have some truth in your words, though it is an insolent way to address your elders and betters," said Narcissa.

"It would be more insolent, surely, to permit you to make yourself look low?" said Lily. "The scion of House Malfoy may demean himself, and demean you by the way he speaks in front of you, but you need not heed that."

"I am surprised that you have knowledge of our ways," said Narcissa.

"We are privileged by an accident of birth to have a combined heritance to give us magic," said Lily. "As we have joined your world, it would be impolite not to learn its ways. Manners maketh the man; and when there are house rivalries, then formalised ways to address each other help to keep misunderstandings to a minimum."

Narcissa was struck.

"But Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs have abandoned the traditions. I thought it was because they were more willing to take in mu … muggleborn and half bloods."

"Perhaps in a way that's true, if there was nobody willing and ready to teach those of us not born of the wizarding world. Why haven't we been offered lessons by prefects, by people like you? We are relying on our half-blood friend whose grandfather has taught him. It's not fair, and it makes for misunderstandings between pure bloods and muggleborn, because it can lead to us being rude unintentionally, and believe me, Miss Black, when I am rude, I want it to be because I am rude intentionally, which I fully intend to be to Lucius Malfoy every time I see him."

"That is not something I can condone, he is from an old and respected house …"

"A boy who will kick a cat and almost kill it is not to be respected and is a stain upon his house's escutcheon," said Lily, pleased to remember the word.

Narcissa was fond of animals, and she paled.

"You know for a fact that he has done this?"

"Did I see him do it? No, but he was happy to boast, and I saw the cat with her ribs stove in," said Lily. "Sev saved the cat with runes."

"First years don't learn runes."

"Huh, he does," said Petunia. "Digs around in dusty old books in the library. His grandfather is a runemaster."

"Oh." Narcissa bit her lip; it was possible and not a lie, and besides, how would such babies know about runes unless they had encountered them? Especially the muggleborn. She went on, "Thank you for that information. It is of personal interest to me."

And now she would have to write a letter to her father, asking him to decline the offer of a betrothal between her and Lucius Malfoy, because Narcissa knew full well that people who hurt animals also hurt people. People like her sister Bellatrix. She nodded to the two juniors that they might go on their way.

They went.

"How could you act so respectful to her, Lily?" demanded Petunia.

"Well, she is a big girl," said Lily. "And that Malfoy boy treats her like he owns her, and Sev did say something about how there might be Slytherin who want to escape. And she did smile nicely at us, and people who can smile with their eyes aren't all bad."

"I suppose," said Petunia. "I don't like all this formality."

"I can't say I dig it much myself, but we're stuck with it if we want to get anywhere, and I'd say we got further than we would have done if we'd spoken mugglewise to her," said Lily. "And we need allies, right? Even Slytherin."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"I can't see the point of this bowing and scraping malarkey," said Ignatius Weasley, a pugnacious red-haired boy, as the Marauders politely acknowledged Frank Longbottom in the Gryffindor common room, the girls, Peter and Remus giving a deeper obeisance than James, Sirius and Severus. Those three were socially above the Longbottoms. Ignatius went on, "We Weasleys just don't bother with it."

"Can't see a point to it myself, either," said Mandy Hubble, a half-blood with curly dark hair and a snub nose.

"I can live without it, but politeness is the prerogative of princes," said Frank. "My mother is very hot on this sort of thing at home. And it allows time for people to assess each other without making sudden and often incorrect value judgements. I think it helps to ease social situations myself."

"It sounds pretty in romantic novels," said Alice Oakby, a pretty blonde girl, blushing.

"Yuk," said Mandy.

"Please tell me you don't read Fifi La Folle," giggled Jean Mordaunt, a plain girl with startlingly green eyes.

"Puhlease!" Alice rolled her eyes. "I read books with a plot, not rubbish like that."

"My mother says she should be burned with all her works as a corrupting influence on the young," volunteered Frank.

"Yes, but your mother said my mother and all her works should be burned … fair point, actually, Frank, mate," said Sirius. Frank gave him a quick sideways look.

"My mother was astounded that you sorted into Gryffindor, Scion Black," he said.

"Yes, and I expect I shall get home in the holidays to find I've been expunged from the family tree," said Sirius, cheerfully. "I had intended to discard all the formality but Sev pointed out, it isn't the formality that makes for stunted mental growth of traditionalist families, it's clinging to stupid ideas. Some tradition is good, and as you say, gives us time to assess as we go through the formulaic greetings. And I confess, being used to it, I do feel uncomfortable with people being too familiar. I don't mean using my first name, though a lot of people are uncomfortable about that, and I wish you would do so, Frank but …"

"He means some of the Ravenclaws are encroaching and think a lot of themselves," said James, "And some of the Huffers are dreadfully loud."

"Which is not confined to Hufflepuff House," said Sirius, looking pointedly at Ignatius and Mandy.

"What's wrong with loud?" demanded Ignatius.

"It's … vulgar," said Severus, thinking of his father. "It makes you sound stupid, if you can't make a point without raising your voice."

"Well, some of us don't want to be swots," said Ignatius.

"No, apparently not," said Severus, dryly.

"It … it isn't wrong, but we just don't do it," said James. "Like whistling indoors, and talking to girls without an introduction. It is bad manners and degrading to a girl to talk to her without an introduction."

"And did that stop you talking to the Evans twins?" demanded Mandy.

"Yes it did," said Severus. "They asked for an introduction."

"And you knew them because you didn't ask for an introduction?"

"I was at school with them; we've known each other since we were small," said Severus.

"Oh!" Mandy was balked by this.

One of the Gryffindor prefects strolled over.

"The rule in Gryffindor is that nobody has to use formality, or respond to it, but that the right of anyone who does is also to be respected," he said. "Though I'd leap on anyone getting snotty about their family, because while you're at school, your House is your family."

Sirius, James and Severus exchanged looks.

"That makes sense," said James.

"That makes us all equals in house then, apart from age and respect to prefects," said Severus. "A harmonious solution; thanks, er, Prewett for clarifying that. This means that though it is comfortable to use a greeting like, 'well met' we may, in house, dispense with excess formality and only use it to depress the pretensions of the Slytherin, er, I mean of other houses."

Prewett laughed.

"That sums it up fairly well, if a little pompous."

"Pompous is Sev's middle name," said Petunia.

"Brave, Tuney, when I know the tickling curse," said Sev.

"James will protect me," said Petunia, ducking behind James.

"Oy, I am not taking on a role of knight protector; that leads to betrothals and I'm too young to die," said James.

The Marauders laughed.

"What are you reading now, Sev? You are such a nerd," said Sirius.

"Well if my nerdiness can help Remus you might be pleased about it," said Severus. It was the first Sunday of term, and the moon was full.

"Oh. Sorry." Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "It feels really weird not having him with us. Are you going to be taking class notes for him if he's still rough tomorrow?"

"Sirius, why did I invent that rune cluster to directly transfer notes defined by them from one book into another?"

"Oh, yeah. Quicker than taking copies. How's the potion research coming?"

"Other than that I'm going to need powdered moonstone? Not well. I'm looking into creating an amulet with runes of stasis carved into moonstone. I'm thinking of combining Nauthiz with Eiwaz, and I'm not sure about using Raidho in merkstave, but though it's stasis it can also be death, and I wouldn't want to kill him."

"Sev, Lily probably understands half of what you're talking about but I don't."

"It doesn't matter so long as you don't mind me talking it through to you."

"If it will help Remus I'll let you talk to me in parseltongue, if you knew it."

"Unfortunately, not," Severus' tone held regret. "The coldness of a snake might help combat his … furry little problem."

It had been a code name coined by James, and if Severus thought it a little trite, he had accepted it. James got petulant if his ideas weren't followed, and giving in on things that did not matter made channelling his sillier ideas into less destructive ends easier. And using a few gaze-repelling charms, and taking turns to be addressed as 'Remus' allayed suspicion much better than all of them disappearing to give Remus moral support outside the shrieking shack, where they were of no use anyway, or giving the game away entirely by turning into werewolves under Polyjuice Potion.

"So, what do these runes do?"

"Nauthiz is delay, restriction, resistance leading to strength, introspection and the power of the will. Eiwaz is the protection and strength rune. I want him to try wearing them next month and see if they will prevent his turning, or will at least enable him to keep his human mind. I don't know if we'll all have to activate them with blood, or if he will, or if the runes themselves with power in them will be enough. It might take a number of months to find out."

"How can you be so patient?"

"He's my best friend, along with Lily. How can I not be patient? This is his whole life."

"Yeah," said Sirius, soberly. "Sev, Mulciber and Avery have noticed that Remus isn't around; you skipped your shift to be him, and … and if this is what you're researching I can get that, but …"

"Blast. Right, we need a conference. Under the dolmen?"

OoOoOo

"I'm sorry I got carried away looking for a cure for Remus and didn't take my turn impersonating him," said Severus.

"And we girls can't," said Lily.

"We need something plausible to get them to focus on, about what makes him ill," Severus said.

"Royal Free Disease?*" suggested Lily. "It's a chronic illness that periodically makes you totally fatigued."

"Does that affect wizards? I've never heard of it," said James.

"I don't think a lot of people have even outside the wizarding world," said Lily, doubtfully.

"A chronic condition following a particularly virulent strain of spattergroit?" suggested Severus.

"That might work," said Sirius. "And it is a chronic condition following a virulent disease, so we say that first and let them make us tell them that it's spattergroit."

"And if that doesn't work, I have a brilliant idea," said Petunia. "If they are trying to find out a deep dark secret, we let them have one – that he's a girl in disguise and has the monthlies very badly."

"What's the monthlies?" asked James.

Petunia blushed.

"Well – you know! What a girl has every month."

"No, I don't know. Is it a muggle thing?"

"I doubt it, if wizards have babies in the same way," said Lily. "Oh for goodness sake, Tuney! I don't have it yet, because I'm not old enough, but mummy explained it." She proceeded to do her own explaining with clinical precision and the detachment of someone not yet suffering.

"Goodness! Who'd be a girl?" said Peter.

"That was more or less what I said to mum when she explained it," said Lily. "It's an idea, Tuney, to let people think Remus is a girl in disguise, perhaps because his parents wanted a son?"

"But how embarrassing for him!" Said Severus.

"Well, yes, but less embarrassing than having people find out his furry little problem, and maybe having them want to kill him," said Sirius, who had been sniggering rather at the idea of Remus being made out to be a girl.

"I suppose so," Severus conceded.

"Cheer up; we may hold them off by the spattergroit explanation. How many people in our year, apart from you, Sev, and maybe Lily, know what phase of the moon it is from day to day?"

"But it's vital for gathering some potion ingredients to know, and for the brewing of some too," said Severus, shocked. "It's vital information!"

"And for most of us, it's information our teachers know so they can tell us when to do what," said Sirius.

"You are such a lazy toerag," said Severus. "What do you do if you need to know the phase of the moon if a teacher isn't there to tell you?"

"Ask you or Lily of course," said Sirius.

Remus returned to school looking washed out and ill, and Severus ran through all that he had missed with him.

"Thank you," said Remus. "I am not going to be an 'O' average student, I fear."

"You will if we all help you," said Severus. "And I plan to ask my grandfather if he can help too. He might put me on the right track of which runes to use, or confirm what I'm trying to do."

"Or he might pull you out of school and complain about me," said Remus.

"If he tries, I'll mention that he has some dark artefacts in the house," said Severus. "He's like us, Remi; a scholar. He'll be so fascinated by the challenge he won't give a damn."

"Well, you know him best," Remus said.

Severus settled down in the common room after school to write a letter.

 _Dear Granddad,_

 _I am trying to help a schoolfellow who has a problem of a cyclical furry nature. My friend is a scholar, and a pureblood, and I know that blood status is important to you, and I hope you will see that it is really gross that he has that hanging over him for no fault of his own and won't feel that he can ever marry._

 _I have thought about an amulet of moonstone with the runes Nauthiz and Eiwaz carved on it. Am I in the right direction, or am I barking up the wrong tree in moonshine?_

 _Your affectionate grandson,_

 _Severus Prince_

 _Scion of House Prince._

 _PS is the family Pince anything to do with us, an offshoot of the family? I've been spending a lot of time in the library, and the librarian, Miss Scrivener, is fairly useless, and her assistant, a Ravenclaw prefect called Irma Pince is awful. If she had her way, books would be hoarded and never opened, and arranged by size and colour for neatness. Some Ravenclaws are just the craziest! I am glad I sorted into Gryffindor, I know you are disappointed, but the people here treat the school house like a family house, and that is why they are so informal. Some of them have wanted to learn proper etiquette, and James, Sirius and I have been teaching them._

 _SP._

He folded it ready for an owl, hesitated, and pulled another bit of parchment towards him.

 _Dear Mum,_

 _I know we didn't part on the best of terms, but I do love you when you forget that I'm dad's son as well as yours. I don't always see eye to eye with granddad, but I find that easier than all the beatings and getting hexed. I guess you married dad as a rebellion against the stuffier formality of House Prince, huh? Well I think the old man is less crusty than you remember and if you need to escape from dad, I reckon he'd be happy to have you back._

 _He's forgiven my rebellion; I wished to be Hatted into House Gryffindor with my friends, I would have gone into Slytherin out of loyalty but there are some bad people in the house. They are associated to the Knights of Walpurgis, or Death Eaters, and I want to be with my friends to oppose them. There are seven of us, including the Evans girls._

 _I hope you are well._

 _Sev._

It was a difficult relationship, but she was a witch, one of his kind, and she had tried to protect him from his father's raw hatred of magic, even though she had jinxed him too at times. Why Tobias Snape had married a witch, knowing she was a witch, and then tried to stop her using magic and prevent his son from using it puzzled Severus more than a little.

He took the letters up to the owl loft, and attached the letter to his grandfather to the leg of the Barn Owl his grandfather had bought for him, and the one to his mother on the leg of a school owl. It was callous, perhaps, to mind less if a school owl was hurt by his father throwing a beer bottle at it, but he loved Gwynhwvyr, his owl, and had no desire to see her hurt.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

* This is the original name of the illness which was later variously known as Myalgic Encephalomylitis, Yuppy Flu and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since the first documented outbreak was in the Royal Free Hospital in the late 1950s. In 1971 it had not acquired any of its later names, at least not outside of the medical profession.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Severus was happy to see his grandfather's owl arriving at breakfast, and carrying with it a small parcel as well as a letter. He broke open the letter first.

" _My dear grandson,_

 _Merlin's bollocks, you have enough ambition to be in Slytherin! Hasn't it occurred to you that in all wizarding history nobody has ever come up with a solution to furry sorts of problems? But then, I don't think anyone has ever tried a runic solution before. The runes you have picked are from Heimdall's Aett, as you are of course aware, and I think you are wise to discard Raidho, which is from Freja's Aett and might conceivably solve the problem in an embarrassing way for a boy by giving him female characteristics instead. I think you need Tiwaz and Mannaz, from Tyr's Aett as well. Tiwaz has powers of analysis and rationality and stands for the hero god; the boy will have to be something of a hero to resist the change. Mannaz, or man will preserve his humanity, especially if he has friends to meditate upon. I am not sure that an amulet on its own will be sufficient, but if he holds it and chants the runes on it as he feels the start of the change it should hold it off. I believe that enough repetitions will be sufficient to keep him in man form for the duration, but he may have to chant for as long as the moon is full._

 _Please find enclosed a rune-engraver's kit to fit over your wand, some better quality moonstone than you may hope to get by mail order, and a six hour potion to change you into a falcon. If the chant does not work, he will not attack an animal, and that will protect you since I know better than to forbid you from watching over your friend. I know how deep your loyalties are, Severus Prince!_

 _Your mother has written to me. She has sent no word of apology for her defiance but she has written to me that she is proud of how you are doing and thanked me for preparing you for school, which is probably as far as the stubborn wench will go. I am wondering whether to collect her and bring her home rather than make her ask, and whether I should hex that misbegotten oaf whose best part was lost to him when it made his son, or merely obliviate him into forgetting he ever had a wife and son. You are a meddler. However doubtless I will be able to teach you a level of Slytherin subtlety in your future meddling. You are only eleven, after all._

 _Your grandfather, Tiberius Prince_

 _Head of the House of Prince."_

Severus raised an eyebrow. Much depended on what his father said and did when his grandfather turned up, he suspected. He opened the package with trembling fingers, and opened the fastening of the leather case within, which was inscribed with his initials, STP. He grinned wildly. Not just any rune-engraver's kit, but a really good set. And the potion! He pocketed that quickly.

"What is that, Sev mate?" asked Sirius.

"It's a rune engraver's kit," said Severus. "These cones fit over the end of my wand, and when I concentrate my magic through it, it will direct it to engrave stone in the shape and size of the nozzle. Square ones, round ones, from coarse to fine! Just look at this, so fine I could write a runic verse on jewellery if I wanted, let alone inscribe Remus' amulet. And a piece of decent moonstone! I'll practice on odd chips first though," he added. "No point making a mess of it, and carving rocks isn't like writing it on paper." He ran his finger down his wand lovingly. Some of the other Gryffindors had made a point of teasing him for having a wand as short as seven inches, but it meant he would have much finer control. It had been difficult, there had been two wands which had whispered to him in Ollivander's shop, the vine one which murmured of hidden depths, and the willow, which gave him flashes of insight. He had felt most comfortable with the willow, and Ollivander had said it was capable of healing magic. Well, that made it appropriate for carving runes for Remus, though at the time of accepting it, he had been thinking purely of potioneering.

"That's going to be pretty hard to learn," said Sirius.

Severus shrugged.

"I'll learn," he said. "It's like learning to use a quill; takes discipline."

"And we're jolly glad your grandfather included us in your lessons in how to do penmanship," put in Lily. "You'll soon learn, Sev, for Remus."

"I will," said Severus. Remus gave him a worried smile.

"It … it doesn't matter if it doesn't work," he said.

"It does, but it won't make me give up, and weep," said Severus. "My grandfather thinks you will need to chant the runes, so you'd better familiarise yourself with the ones I chose and the ones he added."

Remus nodded.

"It's worth a try," he said. "Thank you, Severus, and thank your grandfather too."

"He likes a challenge," said Severus.

Which, he reflected, was just as well, because persuading a muggle-reared grandson that penmanship was important, to teach discipline and application and to be a first step towards perfectly inscribed runes had been an uphill struggle for the old man until he had lost his temper and demanded how a budding runemaster planned to make perfect runes if his handwriting looked as though it was the result of an acromantula under the tarantallegra curse. Severus had demanded to know why he hadn't said so in the first place, and had buckled down to writing pages of single letters perfectly formed. Lily was equally keen to learn runecraft and had cunningly mentioned to Petunia that she was customarily so neat that it would be a shame to spoil that record. James and Sirius had been drilled in penmanship from an early age, though Sirius was inclined to scrawl rather. It had take some time to get Peter up to speed, though Remus learned fast, but they could now all turn in legible essays and did not, other than Sirius, lose marks for legibility. And Sirius lost marks for slapdash work anyway. The only thing that would make Sirius pull up his socks, thought Severus, was if Peter stood above him in the class rankings. Sirius had raw power and was very clever, and thought he and his pure blood were above doing any work. He could be a pain at times, thought Severus! He had no great liking for Peter, who was a bit of a quitter, but the point of being a gang was to be strong enough to stand against any bullies, and that meant all of them being as good as they could be, and he took infinite pains to coach Peter in the correct intonation of the spells, and the right movements of his wand.

"You are so patient with Peter," said Lily, when they wandered out for a walk, just the two of them, the way it had always been.

"He gives up easily," said Severus. "And I'm afraid of him giving up if cornered by a creep like Mulciber, and squealing all our secrets to save his own hide, and if they find out about Remus, he's toast."

Lily nodded.

"But if he knows he is good enough to defend himself, he will trust us to rescue him and hold out?" she said. "I know he was brave momentarily to defy Malfoy, and to warn us on the train, but I'm not sure he's a true Gryffindor."

"He must have the potential or the hat would have dumped him in Slytherin," said Severus. "The coward's house where his propensity for hearing and passing on gossip would have stood him in good stead, especially if he'd attached himself to a powerful patron like Malfoy, and fagged and spied for him. So there must be an inner core of courage to Peter, so long as we don't let James and Sirius and Tuney rag him too much, and we keep him as high up the class as possible, so he has confidence in himself."

"That's clever," said Lily. "James and Sirius and Tuney ought to know better than to rag their own, and I've told them so."

"Me too; they just like the sounds of their own voices," said Severus. "I … I don't think they are dark, though I wondered a few times about Sirius, but some of the japes they wanted to pull have been a little cruel. I mean, I don't like Farty Fenwick any more than they do, he's a bit of a one-trick pony with his arithmancy, studying with the third years, already, and so proud of himself, and thinks people who aren't arithmancers are nothing, but it's not on to spill ink on his work."

"I'm glad you stopped them doing that," said Lily.

"Me too, but I had to think fast to come up with something that wasn't a cowardly trick like that. Making him attractive to flies was the best thing I could think of, and being surrounded by a swarm of them is unpleasant and inconvenient, but as he's always going on about his superior concentration it shouldn't interfere with his school work."

"It was also pretty funny seeing him followed lovingly by his horrid harem," said Lily. "And it's getting colder so they should all die off."

"The spell will wear off before then anyway," said Severus. "Merlin, I can't manage something of that complexity to last for more than two days! And as it's the weekend, his attendant nymphs aren't going to wind up the staff. Lily, I'm tempted to ask if I can test into the rune elective class; I'm well ahead in everything else, and I was looking at their homework and I could do it, and so could you; shall we go and see Professor Babbling?"

"I … yes, why not? What about Remus?"

"If we can get rid of his furry little problem, then all well and good, but he is most awfully unwell before the full moon, even if it's the effects of changing that make him ill after it," said Severus. "I don't want to put him under more pressure, he struggles to keep up even though he's heaps cleverer than anyone except you and me."

Lily nodded.

"Yes, it wouldn't be fair," she said. "Very well, let's go and see Professor Babbling right now."

Professor Babbling frowned to see two first years.

"What can I do for you?" she said, neutrally.

"Please, Madam Babbling, my great grandfather is a runemaster," said Severus, "And he has been teaching Lily and me, and we wondered if we could test out to see if we could take the elective from this year, not wait until the third."

"Good gracious!" said Professor Babbling. "Of course, everyone has heard of Tiberius Prince, and a few things said about his rune lore which … dear me, yes, you had better test out, so I can teach you something of the ethics of rune use."

"If you mean the demonology, he's more interested in banishing than summoning," said Severus. "Granddad said that anyone who deliberately invited in any being from one of the nether planes, or even a great form fae spirit has to have erumpants loose in their top paddock, but you need to know how the gates open in order to close them. He told me that I wouldn't even be touching those books until I approached rune mastery on pain of pain."

"I can hear him saying it," said Professor Babbling dryly. "I am glad; you relieve my mind no end. I had heard disturbing rumour."

"The only thing that lies more readily than rumour is a Slytherin who hasn't done his Transfigurations homework," said Severus.

"An interesting simile," said the professor. "Well, there is no time like the present, so if you would care to come along to an empty classroom, I will give you the end of term test from last year's class."

Severus found it easy. He knew the theory, for Tiberius had been thorough, and he recognised the runes inscribed to read. He was glad of his penmanship to write them too. Lily was sighing a little over the Ancient Greek, but seemed to be holding her own. Severus finished early, and sat quietly as Lily continued to scribble.

When the time was up, Professor Babbling took their papers.

"I'll get these marked before supper so I can see about talking to Madam McGonagall to schedule your classes if you have passed well enough," she said.

"Thank you, Madam Babbling," they chorused.

Naturally they trooped into supper with their friends, and looked to the staff table; and the professor of ancient runes gave them an austere smile and a quiet nod. And after the meal, in the common room, their House Head sought them out.

"I hear ye wee sumpfs have been branching oot," she said.

"It seemed a shame not to carry on with what Sev's grandfather had taught us," said Lily. "And I like runes, though Tuney doesn't."

"Weel, ye're tae join the third years in their classes," said McGonagall, "and here are your timetables. If yer marks in Trrrransfigurations suffer, I'll aye be pullin' ye frae extracurricular classes."

"Did Madam Babbling say what marks we got?" asked Severus.

McGonagall fixed him with a steely glare.

"She said ye were ahead o' her current class but that ye were no' tae tak' that as a reason tae slack," she said. "Ye both scored 'O' and Miss Evans scored 92% and ye made a pig's ear o' one rune and dropped tae 99%, Mr. Prince."

"I shan't do that again," said Severus seriously. "How embarrassing!"

McGonagall laughed. "Och ye wee perfectionist!" she said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It was too much to expect that the Slytherin contingent would leave the Marauders alone, and they were having a meeting to compare notes on various research about Remus when Sirius held up a hand. They had convened in an attic room with water tanks and a few long-forgotten student trunks which made convenient seating, and Severus had known the banishing spell to get rid of all the dust, and James had found his way into the school kitchens and had made nice at the elves to get indigestible pastries with jam and cream, so all was perfect.

"What?" said Severus, testily, having been about to launch into his efforts with rune carving.

"Rats," said Sirius, laconically, moving with easy grace to the side of the room. He reached swiftly behind a water tank and yanked out Avery, who patently did not know the dust banishing spell.

"What a dirty object!" said Petunia.

"It looks like Avery…" said James,

"And it smells like Avery…" added Sirius,

"But no pure blood like Avery would demean himself to be covered in dust, when the spell to get rid of it is so easy," said Severus. "Even if he needed his house elf to do it for him, being too feeble to do it himself."

James opened his mouth to protest that he hadn't known the spell, and shut it again. This was about humiliating Avery, not worrying about who knew the spell.

"It must be someone disguised as Avery," said Sirius.

"Well all that dust and all those cobwebs are an effective disguise of anyone," said James. "Ooh look, spiders all over his robes!"

Avery yelped in some consternation; he was not fond of spiders.

"We need to brush him off," said Sirius, doing so with more vigour than was strictly necessary, being more akin to a light beating.

"We need to shake 'n'vacc him," giggled Petunia.

"We can shake him with the jelly legs jinx and the tarantallegra curse," said Severus, suiting actions to words. Avery danced on wobbly legs, sobbing with frustration and terror.

Severus cancelled the jinxes.

"All right, Avery, we've let you know what we think of sneaking little spies," he said. "And we could do a lot worse to you but we aren't incipient death eaters."

"Incipient? You been swallowing dickers again, Sev mate?" asked Sirius.

"Hush, Siri, it's a good word," said Lily.

"I eat dictionaries for breakfast with thesauruses for dessert," said Severus. "I found it when I was looking up something else in a spell book I didn't understand, okay? And it was a jolly good word."

"Yeah, though I can think of other good words to suit Avery and his kind," said Sirius.

"Sure you can, but there are ladies present," said James. "Sev, you weren't going to let him go?"

"Seven on one is a bit despicable, really," said Severus. "Or even the few of us who actively did anything. Hell, with Unsavoury Avery, any one of us on him is an overkill. I thought we might send him back to Mulciber and let him moan that we didn't want him spying on us."

"Oh no, Prince, please, he'll hurt me!" whined Avery.

"Then grow a pair and hurt him back," said Severus. "One more jinx to help you on your way, it will wear off in under a minute," and he waved his wand in a complex pattern with the words " _Hevea vulcandum spherico_!"*

Avery became a rubber ball, and Severus kicked him out of the attic door and down the steep steps where he might he heard bouncing and howling as he did so.

"Neat jinx," said James.

"Thanks," said Severus.

"Wait, you made that up?"

"Sure I did. I was reading a treatise on transfiguration by shape and material, and it looked jolly interesting. It's only his outer layer that's rubber, I didn't mess with his organs, so don't look at me like that, Lily."

"Well, you know what Madam McGonagall said about human transfiguration," said Lily.

"It isn't, not as such," said Severus. "It's just a topological rearrangement with an exterior change because if I kicked him downstairs without changing his robes and outer skin to rubber, it would break bones. This way he's bruised and unhappy but not seriously hurt."

"Oh, ok," Lily bit her lip. "I guess you did think it through fully then."

"I did."

"Well we bow to your clever arse," said James, kow-towing floridly.

"Idiot," said Severus. He knew fine well that if James or Sirius had been capable of inventing a spell they would not have considered protecting the boy with a rubber exterior; but maybe Lily having a go at him, and his explanation might be a step to making them less thoughtless.

"That was funny, especially as it won't really hurt him," said Remus. "And as you were so rudely interrupted, Sev, shall we have the cream buns now and then you report?"

"Good idea," agreed Severus.

"I already had mine," said James.

"Oh well, you can watch us eat ours," said Sirius. "No, Petunia Evans, don't you dare share with him; if the greedy toerag couldn't wait, there's no reason for him to get more."

The meeting proceeded smoothly after this, and Severus demonstrated how he was improving his stone carving. Lily had written an essay on the magical effects of the moon, covering its effect on various plants as well as on werewolves.

"I reckon if you can get the amulet ready by the apogee, the dark of the moon, which is around the twentieth of this month, it should protect him more," she said. "It'll be there to help him resist the effects every day as the moon waxes."

"Good one," said Severus. "I've a few days in hand, I'll do one more practice one, and then the real one. Remus, have you been practising chanting the runes?"

"I have," said Remus. "And actually I found it calming and helped me to focus right from the first when I rejoined school after my, er, return to normal. I think I'm going to chant the runes daily anyway."

"If it helps you, that's all good, mate," said Sirius, punching Remus' arm lightly.

The sequel to this was when Lily and Petunia came round a corner to hear screams coming from a classroom. There was also Lucius Malfoy's brutal laugh.

"We can't do this alone," said Lily, tight faced. "You go find the others; I'll see if I can find a teacher."

Petunia nodded and sprinted for Gryffindor tower. Lily set off towards the main hall, and almost ran into Argus Filch.

"Oh Mr. Filch, am I glad to meet you!" she said. "Malfoy is torturing someone in a classroom, and my sister and I couldn't handle him on our own!"

"Well, I got the technical authority," said Filch, reluctantly, "And that Prince boy made me some rune stones to help with basic cleaning spells, but I ain't sure …."

"Petunia is getting the others," said Lily.

"Ar, well, in that case, I'm game," said Filch. "Flogging's too good for that little snot-nosed piece of filth."

"I'm not sure I actually disagree with you," said Lily. "This way, sir."

Lily and Filch arrived at the classroom first, where Avery was stood upon a table, his robes tied up about his neck while Malfoy led Mulciber and other first year Slytherin in casting burning hexes at his legs.

"Merlin's beard!" cried Lily.

"Caught you redhanded, you little creeps," said Argus.

Malfoy whirled around.

"There's only the squib and the mudblood; get them!" he cried. " _Incendio!"_

Lily was glad of the shield charm Severus had taught her, and as soon as she had one to protect herself, she cast one on Argus Filch too. The door next to her was burning merrily, however. The first years were not as adept at curses as Malfoy was, and there was a knot of them who hesitated to cast any spells at a member of staff. Mulciber was not amongst the number of the reluctant, and Lily had no compunction in copying what Severus had done to Avery in casting the jelly leg jinx and the tarantallegra curse. That was one opponent largely nullified, for dancing wildly on wobbling legs made his aim rather wild. Lily ducked as a rather nasty curse struck the wall and a bit of masonry came crashing down beside her.

And then there were curses streaming over her shoulder, and Malfoy was being hit by a weird selection of curses that left him giggling wildly and dancing in mid air as slugs poured out between giggles.

"Hands on your heads, the rest of you," said Severus. "Madam McGonagall is on her way."

"And has arrrrrived," said the Scottish witch. " _Aguamenti!_ " A stream of water from her wand had the fire under control. "My goodness! How did ye manage tae do that tae Mr. Malfoy?"

"Tickling curse from me," said James.

"Slug vomiting curse from me," volunteered Peter.

"Tarantallegra from me," said Sirius

"And I levitated him, and added ' _verticalis'_ to ' _Wingardium leviosa'_ , said Severus.

The junior Slytherin had by now got their hands rapidly on their heads, except Mucliber, who was wobbling about wildly, and Avery, who had collapsed into a heap, sobbing.

"Please, Madam McGonagall, I think there are some of them who were threatened with the same if they didn't join in," said Lily. "They weren't casting very enthusiastically at Avery, and they didn't attack Mr. Filch and me."

"Perhaps, my dear, you'd be good enough to point them out."

"David Greengrasse, Emmeline Urquhart, Abelard Cooper and Dawn Cuffe," said Lily.

"Very well, you four may take Mr. Avery to the hospital wing, and wait for me there," said McGonagall. "Mr. Mulciber, Mr. Crabbe, Miss Bulstrode, I will see ye in my office… dear me, a most uncomfortable set of jinxes. Who was rrrresponsible for breaking bits off the castle?"

"That was Mulciber, but he might have been casting at me, and his aim was off," said Lily.

"Indeed! And can ye reca' the incantation?"

Lily frowned.

"I thought it was something about fringes."

"Would that be 'confringo'?"

"Yes, Madam McGonagall."

"The blasting curse! Well just as well his aim was disrupted!" McGonagall was shocked. "Mr. Mulciber, you and Mr. Malfoy will be accompanying me tae see the headmaster."

"Reckon if we get to the hospital wing we can subvert those reluctant Slytherin before McGonagall gets there," said Severus.

"Sub… you said what?" said James.

"Subvert. Turn to our side. Gain recruits in the fight against bullies and death eaters," said Severus.

"Isn't defeating them enough?" asked Sirius.

"No of course it isn't you poor prune," said Severus, tightly. "We have a golden opportunity here."

"He's right," said Lily. "They were reluctant and Avery is not happy with Mulciber, and if we offer an olive branch, on the lines of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', and offer to stick up for them, we can stop Malfoy turning them into death eaters."

"I don't suppose Malfoy will be in school much longer, he'll get expelled," said James.

"Actually, I don't think he will," said Severus. "I bet he goes by the maxim 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. And while Malfoy is in school, he's under some kind of control, not out there running riot. The death eaters are getting bold, they have been leaving the bodies of tortured muggles where people can find them. And the ministry is doing nothing."

"And in a couple of years' time, Malfoy is going to be out there with my darling cousin Bellatrix, who enjoys torturing people, along with her husband and brother-in-law," said Sirius.

"More runes," said Severus.

"You're taking verbal shortcuts again," said Petunia.

"Yes, but you know where I'm going," said Severus.

"Yes, you mean reversing what your granddad did for me, and limiting his magic, don't you?"

"That was the idea," said Severus.

"We'll never manage to do it," said James.

"We will if we stalk him in that invisibility cloak of yours and nab him on a visit to Hogsmead," said Severus. "Drag him into the Shrieking Shack, since we know full well it's not haunted by anything except Remus, all of us masked, and we tattoo him."

"It's … it's not very nice," said Lily.

"Lily, do you really think that your parents are going to be safe, after all we've done against him, once he's adult and free of the wand restrictions? Because I don't suppose for one moment that he's going to feel any compunction about killing them, and messily too," said Severus, roughly. "And that leaves us with a need to neutralise him one way or another. I don't want to damage my soul by killing him. Putting a magical restraint on him, however, to turn him into a squib, means he's unharmed and yet of no worry to any of us."

"Actually, Sev, it's brilliant," said Sirius. "I know there are magical restraints which do the same thing, hand cuffs and collars. They use them to restrain prisoners who are dangerous, in the Wizgamot. I think they stop werewolves turning voluntarily as well."

"Who'd want to?" Remus shuddered.

"Evil gits like wassisface who bit you," said Peter.

"Greyback," supplied Remus.

"Yeah, him."

"Right, Sirius, that's your project to find out about," said Severus.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Library work?" suggested Severus, sarcastically. "Failing that, you could pretend to your father that you've stopped rebelling, and ask him about your position as heir in the wizgamot, and ask him about how dangerous criminals are restrained. In more detail than you know."

"Oh. Okay," said Sirius. "I hate my family, you know, especially my mother."

"Well use more mustard," quipped James.

"I know, Siri, but this is to help rid the world of people like your family," said Severus.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that," said Sirius.

"And maybe if you show more respect to tradition, you might be able to stop your little brother joining the death eater types of his year," said James.

"If I cared."

"He's your brother; I don't have any siblings. I'd give a lot for a brother, to take care of and help," said James.

"Huh, you wouldn't want mine, he's a sneak and a blood snob."

"He'll grow out of the first and the second is your parents' fault and we can break him of it," said Severus.

They had reached the hospital wing by this time, and were ready to reason with Slytherin children.

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* Hevea, the rubber tree, vulcandum, which must be vulcanised, spherico to a ball


	8. Chapter 8

_Well, PaviCalli, it's fairly traditional for the houses to miscall each other's traits; and a good Slytherin would tell you that a live cunning cautious fellow is better than a dead bone-headed hero and a timely manipulation of the truth saves a lot of trouble. The younger [and more Death Eater-subverted] members of this tradition are going to show as cowardly liars, even as Gryffindor cubs are going to show as brainless yobs, Ravenclaws as snotty show-offs, and Hufflepuffs as terminally unoriginal. As you will have seen, if you stuck with it, Severus leads his Marauder friends into alliances with members of Slytherin because he's traditionally Slytherin enough to believe that subverting to alliance is twice as effective as defeating. He hasn't exactly seen good examples in his Slytherin peer group to challenge the Gryffindor promulgated view, and at **eleven years old** , however independent a thinker he **is** going to be picking up some peer pressure in nomenclature. School stories are about growth and learning. Severus had his certainty in family tradition badly rocked on the train, but he has enough constancy from his grandfather to look further than happily embracing the beliefs of his new house and to lead Sirius away from total bigotry as well. A character who starts off wise, knowing, perfect and without any prejudices to fight against would be a bit boring, don't you think? Sev is neither totally rejecting Slytherin, nor is he going to be a Slytherin sorted to the wrong house. He is who he is.  
_

 **Chapter 8**

The four children who had been reluctant waited in a knot outside the ward, where they had been banished. They looked warily at the Marauders, and David Greengrasse's hand strayed towards his wand.

"We aren't here to jinx you," said James, haughtily.

"Let's do this properly," said Severus, bowing. "Mr. Greengrasse, as one of the major houses, we, the scions of Houses Black, Potter and Prince, and our adherents wish to negotiate."

Greengrasse bowed back; it was almost a conditioned response. All the children on both sides bowed and curtseyed.

"Speak, scion of the House of Prince," said Greengrasse.

"We note your reluctance to be drawn into the politics of the death eaters," said Severus. "Even in the harming of one of their number in the person of Avery, who is an egregious little tick, but might have learned the error of his ways."

"Unlikely but you never know," Greengrasse shrugged.

"Some people join gangs to avoid being ganged against," said Severus. "And if you let him hang with you lot, that's five of you against Mulciber's gang. And only three of them. Five opposing three is better than four opposing four, wouldn't you say?"

"I can add up as well as anyone," said Greengrasse. "And what's it to you?"

"We're opposing Death Eaters," said Severus. "And other bullies, for that matter. I know your house is traditionally neutral, Greengrasse, neither traditionalist nor liberal, but as you can see, we all respect the traditions without wanting to go as far as the extremes of the Death Eaters. Your family respects the rule of law; and they have placed themselves outside the protection of neutrality by disregarding the law and laughing at it. They killed an auror."

"That is true enough," admitted Greengrasse. "So what's the actual deal?"

"The deal is, you lot stand firm against those who want to be Death Eaters, and we Marauders will back you, and fight your corner if big people get involved," said Severus. "I can't see that a man of honour has anything in common with people who wand-burn a kid for, I presume, having been caught spying by us when we were talking. And yes, we jinxed him well as a matter of principle, but we won't stand by to see Mulciber and Malfoy take it out of his hide because we are cleverer than him. And if you can get him to run with your lot, it makes sense."

Greengrasse nodded.

"It does," he said. "This is not an agreement for my family to abandon neutrality or support liberal policies."

"No, of course not; my grandfather is neutral like your family, with conservative leanings, the Black family are traditionalist and the Potter family rather more liberal. Politics don't enter into it, it's a means to stop criminals who are holding our society to ransom and tainting the name of traditionalist houses through their actions," said Severus.

"Yes, you're right," said Greengrasse. "And I shall write to my father and tell him that those of us trying to remain within the rules are having to accept help from Gryffindors because members of our own house are traitors to society."

"Too right!" said James. They shook hands all round, and departed to leave the four Slytherin to exert pressure on Avery to leave Mulciber's gang and swing the balance of power the other way.

"So why did we make an agreement with the enemy?" asked James when they were safely back in Gryffindor tower.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"James, don't be crass! They aren't the enemy, they're little kids like us. House rivalry isn't the same as enmity."

"Exactly," said Severus. "You can't go about saying that all Slytherin are the enemy; suppose I hadn't met Malfoy on the train? I'd have gone there for loyalty to my grandfather, and you said you'd still have been friends. And the kids who don't know it's the house usurped by death eaters get put in there if they have ambition and a degree of cunning, whether they are death eater types or no different to us Marauders, 'cos we could all be Slytherin, you know! And more than ever, we need Slytherin who aren't Death Eaters to support the … the common good."

"Oh," said James, abashed. "I suppose so."

"He puts it more eloquently than I could, but I agree too," said Remus.

Remus said very little, but when he spoke up, they all generally listened, and no more was said about Slytherin being the enemy.

"Mr. Malfoy, you have already lost your prefectship, are you asking to be expelled?" Dumbledore looked over the top of his half-moon spectacles, and there was no jollity in his gaze.

"I … those Gryffindor kids interrupted a perfectly private peer punishment of a fellow," said Malfoy. "Normally such things are done in the privacy of the common room, and what happens in Slytherin stays in Slytherin."

"Ah, I see, you have been used to Professor Slughorn being lax in the matter of discipline of those of you from old and powerful houses," said Dumbledore, softly, but there was steel in his tone. "I have asked your House Master to be alive to such infractions, and as he was most shocked by your behaviour only a short while ago, I fancy he is keeping a close eye on you. He will be keeping a closer eye on you, Mr. Malfoy, for you are in detention until the end of term."

"Are you serious? It's only September still!"

"Oh, I am quite serious, Mr. Malfoy, and I will be more serious yet if you speak back to me in such a tone again," said Dumbledore. "You have proven yourself to be entirely untrustworthy, so you will hand your wand to your House Master over lunch and after school, and you will take your meals on a table which will be set up between the staff table and the main Slytherin table, and you will sleep in the guest quarters next to your House Master's own quarters. House elves are preparing all this as I speak to you. For safety reasons you will not be locked in to your new room, but if you attempt to leave it, a ward will be triggered, and you will be followed. There are lavatory facilities ensuite, so there is no need to leave your room. It will be no more luxurious than a dormitory room, naturally, but it is an improvement on being made to sleep for the rest of the term in the hospital wing, which I considered. At the end of this term, we shall review your behaviour to see if you might be permitted to sleep and eat with civilised people again. As to your detention …"

"There's more?" Malfoy was aghast.

"Oh, yes, Lucius, there is more. This is only about your living arrangements. After school you will be supervised while you undertake your preparation, and when you have finished, you will be filling this book for me," Dumbledore conjured a blank bound book, "In your best handwriting, repetitions of 'I should try to act like a respectable member of society, not like a criminal.' I trust that you will find that the lesson goes home."

"And … and the weekends?"

"Oh yes, thank you for reminding me. At the weekends, you must keep up healthy exercise, and not be stuck inside copying. You will run around the lake first thing after breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, and then you will finish any homework you have on the Saturday, and so that you are fresh for the new week, Madam Sprout and Mr. Filch will find you physical tasks about the greenhouses and castle to keep you occupied. Mr. Filch has only agreed to this on the understanding that a house elf is assigned to him to report any naughtiness on your part towards Mr. Filch, though I fancy, Lucius, as you have not studied wandless magic, you should find it easy to be a model student."

Lucius Malfoy ground his teeth.

Mulciber was also in detention until the end of term, for using a curse of deadly effect and for hurting a fellow student. His detentions were all with Argus Filch, but he was left his wand and was not moved out of his dormitory or of his table. As a younger boy, as Dumbledore told him, he had come under some bad influence, and had the opportunity to escape from it. His gang members would be in detention for a month.

The acid test, so far as the Marauders were concerned, would be over Avery, and whether he left Mulciber's gang or not. Greengrasse nodded to Severus as they met for potions. As families they ranked approximately equal on the social standings, so fewer niceties were required between them. After wishing each other 'well met', Greengrasse spoke.

"Avery saw the error of his ways; being hurt twice, once by your gang, and then by his own did not seem to him to be a good bargain. No man of honour punishes his underlings for failure, unless it was palpably their own fault, and it seems that as attitudes come from the top, this so-called Lord Voldemort encourages punishment for failure, regardless of the difficulty of the task set."

Severus managed not to blink at so pompous, and to his mind, Ravenclawish a statement, since he agreed with the sentiment.

"It might just be Malfoy and his influence, but I guess you're right," he said.

"I have heard a few things from my father as well," said Greengrasse.

"Ah, then that does rather clinch what he stands for, doesn't it?" said Severus. "Rule not by tradition but by bully."

"Yes," said Greengrasse, "And I'm writing to my father on the subject."

"Good," said Severus. "I'm sure he'll find much in common with my grandfather."

Malfoy was further ridiculed at his lone table when his family owl glided in and dropped a red envelope. Malfoy winced, closed his eyes briefly, and opened the Howler hurriedly.

"YOU IRRITATING LITTLE MORON! HAVE YOU NO SENSE? WHATEVER POSSESSED YOU TO START HARASSING LESSER BEINGS LIKE SQUIBS AND MUDBLOODS? YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY IN CONSORTING WITH THEM IN ANY FASHION WHATSOEVER! YOU SHOULD IGNORE SUCH ANIMALS, EVEN AS YOU SHOULD IGNORE THE ELVES, AND NOT DAMAGE VALUABLE PROPERTY! AS I'VE SPOKEN TO YOU ABOUT THIS BEFORE I AM EVEN MORE DISPLEASED! YOU DESERVE ANY PUNISHMENT YOU GET FOR FORGETTING THAT A MALFOY IS ABOVE THE PETTY MINDED ERUMPANT DUNG PROMULGATED BY THAT JUMPED-UP HALF-BLOOD ARSEWIPE FROM WHO KNOWS WHERE! A MALFOY DOES NOT FOLLOW SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A NAME! NOW SHAPE UP OR YOU'LL BE NO SON OF MINE!"

"Well!" said Severus. "Time perhaps for my grandfather to talk to Abraxus Malfoy and seek some agreements."

"But he's horrible! He calls muggleborn and squibs animals!" said Lily.

"Sure he is, and he's a nasty piece of work looking on elves only as property, too," said Severus, "But when has politics ever been about liking people? Getting pure bloods on our side against Voldemort is good, right? "

"My mother thinks Voldemort is the works," said Sirius.

"Yeah, but we already established that your mother gives lady dogs a bad name and isn't too tightly wrapped, Siri mate," said James.

"Good point," said Sirius.

Severus also received letters. The first, in his mother's handwriting, he ripped open, in case it was unpleasant, to get it out of the way.

" _My dear son,_

 _My grandfather came to call, and your father was in one of his moods, and I confess I was glad to see anyone. Grandfather took one look at my face, and he did not even bother to take out his wand, he beat up your father using some unarmed combat technique he has learned. I have never seen Tobias so discommoded, as he was ready to sneer at any damage caused by wand and was preparing to send a letter to the ministry complaining of muggle baiting. However, he can hardly do so for being given bruises in the muggle fashion! I did not know my grandfather knew such things! I confess I was pleased to go with him, and be pampered by Tessi. I have missed living in a wizarding family, but I thought I loved your father, and I despised my father and grandfather for their prejudice. Your grandfather has said it can happen in families where both are from recognised families but one is very musical and the other tone deaf, and he assumes that it would be the same in such case with muggles too. I am sorry I have not been a better mother to you, but Granddad says that you will understand, and I hope that you do. Your mother,_

 _Eileen Prince_

 _House of Prince._

Severus' eyes misted with tears. He could not ever trust his mother to protect him, but now he was eleven, he could take care of her.

The other letter was in the forceful handwriting of his grandather.

" _My dear boy,_

 _I believe your mother has written to her, I went to see her and found that piece of dung which somehow managed to sire you using her as a punching bag. I have taken my time before visiting since I spent part of the summer, and the last few weeks studying intensively on muggle martial arts, since I would despise to soil my wand on the trash, or to be accused of muggle baiting. I believe any court would acquit me on the evidence of your mother's bruises, but even so, I felt it worth while taking him apart in a manner he could understand. I confess it is remarkably satisfying and I have recommended my teacher to the Evans parents, and you will also be learning from him in the holidays. Sometimes the unexpected can give you an edge._

 _You wrote me a hurried note about wanting to help a squib, and I will be coming to pick you up at Christmas, when I shall examine him. I confess that the idea of going down in history as a curer of squibs, and a co-curer of lycanthropy tickles my ego._

 _I am proud of your standings in class, and that you have managed to convince the runes teacher to permit you into her class. You might also wish to consider reading some works on arithmancy if you have time, as this aids with potioneering and spellcrafting as well as placement of runes for a better result. However, do not overdo the study, as all work and no play makes Jacobus a dull boy. The idea of making allies outside your house is a good one. I would have preferred you to have been leading that group, but I understand your reasons for avoiding such a prefect, though you say that was stripped from him, and quite right too. I have to say, from your descriptions of the young Malfoy, he sounds exactly like your father but with the advantage of magical powers. Don't let him intimidate you, you have a weapon to surpass him, as you inherited my brains._

 _Stay safe,_

 _Your grandfather, Tiberius Prince,_

 _Head of the House of Prince."_

Yes, thought Severus, Lucius Malfoy did have that about him which reminded him of his father. He would write home and tell his grandfather all about the developments and how the son was not in his father's good books.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

As the weeks passed, Severus completed the amulet, and Remus wore it next to his skin. September ended, and Remus chanted his runes every morning.

"I don't think I feel as ill," he said. "But it might be wishful thinking and hope."

"Well, we'll see when we go into the shrieking shack on Sunday evening," said Severus.

"We? But if I change, I'll rip you to shreds, my friend!"

Severus smiled smugly.

"I have a potion of shape shifting," he said. "My grandfather knew I'd want to see the results."

"I'd do it," said James.

"And you could see how the runes held and which ones were working or not?" said Severus.

"Oh. Uh, no, I guess not," said James.

"I'm going to leave it to drink to the last minute though," said Severus. "So I can observe with human eyes and ears."

"Don't leave it too long," said Remus.

"Okay," Severus nodded. "I have no desire to either be a belated supper or be howling at the moon with you. It would put a crimp in my researches."

It was a bit creepy heading out for the shrieking shack in the dark. Sunset was earlier here in Scotland, and it was not much past five when crepuscular gloom hid the egress of the two boys. Hagrid was aware of Remus' condition and would turn a blind eye to a friend going with him, but not all the staff had been told. And Madam McGonagall, who obviously did know, would not take kindly to another of her little lions being absent with his friend. Remus showed Severus how to roll up to the whomping willow and press the knot that stopped it whomping for long enough to enter the passageway, and Severus followed him quickly. They passed down the passage and came out into the basic, but not uncomfortable quarters Dumbledore had provided.

"I'm confined in here by wards," said Remus. "The bed isn't much use to me as a wolf, but it's more comfortable to rest on while I wait for the change, and then to crawl onto to wait for the tremours and pain to subside after."

Severus patted his friend awkwardly on the arm.

"Moonrise in just under two hours," he said.

Remus nodded.

"I can feel when it's about to happen," he said. "We have time to eat first. Or you do; I vomit from the pain often if I eat beforehand."

Severus unnpacked the picnic they had wheedled out of the kitchen elves.

"Try and eat something," he said.

"I'll eat something if it works," said Remus.

"Fair enough," Severus nodded. "I have to say, I reckon it's a bit optimistic to expect it to work first go, but if there's any delay, or you can retain any part of your awareness, we will know we're working in the right direction."

"And as I won't remember, you need to be there to observe," said Remus.

Severus ate, as much for something to do as for hunger. He was at an age when food was always welcome, but it turned to ashes in his mouth as he worried about his friend.

 _I am afraid of him biting me or clawing me,_ he reflected. _I am afraid of my best friend and that makes me feel guilty. I will not give in to fear and run away!_

They played a game of exploding snap to pass away the time, and then suddenly Remus pushed the cards away and started chanting, looking white and sick. Severus retreated to a previously noted position, on top of the canopy of the four poster bed. It held his slight weight, as he had hoped it would, and he sat, cross legged, with his potion ready. He would be out of the immediate reach of a werewolf, and he wanted to see the change if it occurred with human senses.

And then Remus was shaking, screaming, pulling at his face with his hands, and hair was sprouting all over him. An unearthly scream seemed to drag his very face forward with it as he grew a snout.

And then he was standing there, shaking.

"Merlin's bollocks!" growled the boy-wolf, his voice distorted through the elongated mouth. "Sev, you did it … I'm me!"

"I'm staying up here in case there's another stage and you lose it, okay?" said Severus. "I'll come down in about ten minutes, and then retreat again right before midnight."

"Seems fair," said Remus, fingering the hamper of food and stuffing a chicken leg into his mouth. The bones crunched and went down with the meat.

"We ought to give you raw food really," said Severus, critically. "Cooked chicken bones are bad for cats and dogs, so I don't suppose they're good for wolves either."

"It almost didn't touch the sides; I skipped lunch. I usually do," said Remus. "next time we'll get some rare steak."

"Good idea," said Severus, cautiously sliding down one of the posts to the bed. "How long does it last, usually?"

"Until moonset," said Remus. "Which is about quarter to six. I generally wake up on the floor about seven, and then I drag myself onto the bed and sleep away most of the day."

Severus nodded.

"If this isn't too bad, we can sleep the night on the bed, and you'll be fine in the morning."

"Yes, and with luck I'll be able to do this and nobody any the wiser."

There was a knock at the door, and Sirius' voice,

"Pssst, Sev mate! One squawk for yes, two for no, did it work?"

Severus unbarred the door, and looked in vain for his friend. Several heads erupted from the invisibility cloak.

"We thought we'd come down as moral support," said Lily. "But you have to be very friendly under that cloak."

"Yeah, I had to book Tuney for cobbing," quipped James. Petunia loved quidditch too and she laughed.

"Gosh, he's still hairy," said Peter.

"But I'm me inside the hair and that's a victory," said Remus.

"Right," said James. "Congratulations, Sev, mate!"

"I don't think it would have worked without the runes my grandfather suggested," said Severus. "But if he can get a good night's sleep, it shows less."

"I reckon we could cover it more as well," said Lily. "I was reading in one of the theory of magic books we were consulting that a healthy body helps sustain spells."

"Well the rest of us are healthy," said Sirius.

"You're starting to get porky with all those flaky pastries," said Lily. "It doesn't mean just not ill, it means fit. Really fit. And I thought if we had a habit of running round the lake every morning, earlier than most people get up, we could collect Remus on the way so everyone assumes he went with us and came back with us."

James groaned.

"Isn't that a lot of effort to go to?" he complained.

"Is any effort too great for a friend?" demanded Lily. "And if Remus is running as well, he might be able to be able to cope with the strain on the muscles changing shape better too."

"It's actually brilliant," said Severus. "I know, some of you like your beds in the morning, and I am not shouting with glee, but being able to sustain spells longer does excite me. And my grandfather learned muggle fighting skills to beat up my father, so he wasn't done for muggle baiting, and he's going to have me taught, and if we all learn that too, we can take people by surprise, like we did going for Malfoy muggle fashion, and that will help us keep fit too."

"I hate to say it, but it really is brilliant," said James, pulling a face.

"I … I like the idea," said Peter, after his initial shock had worn off. "I don't like getting up early but I do like the idea of being able to out-perform all the others who think they are so clever. And being able to fight them too."

"Right, sorted," said Severus.

"And we can take turns to stay with Remus as well," said Sirius, "Or at least us boys can, it wouldn't be proper for you girls."

"Also we have nosier dorm mates," said Petunia. "Or we wouldn't care, Remus isn't going to grope either of us, he's too shy."

"And I don't want to do things like that anyway, grownups are icky," said Remus.

"Well, if we're going by etiquette, it's a big deal even at our age to be unchaperoned," said Sirius. "Shall we leave you two to it? Only we nearly got caught coming out, even though Mrs. Norris doesn't give the alarm about us, Professor Povey is prowling."

"Well he can't teach Defense against the Dark Arts to save his life, so I don't suppose he's much good at catching truanting witches and wizards," said Severus.

"He gives me the creeps," said Lily.

"Well don't get caught, then," said Severus, shooing them out. "I brought a travelling chess set, Remus, can your hands manage the pieces?"

"Well I can try," growled Remus. "I can hold a wand, anyway so I can practice the levitation charm with precision."

"Ok, we'll both do it that way; it's a good idea," said Severus. "I thought we might go to bed half an hour before our usual lights-out, because it's been a little stressful for you."

Remus laughed.

"But not as stressful as usual," he said.

The other five Marauders, having got back in good time, went to bed early too, pulling the curtains of Severus' and Remus' beds after making a lump in the covers to look like sleeping bodies, and set alarms to get up early.

They slept better for knowing that their friend was not suffering, and rose promptly at six.

"What's with you lot?" asked Frank Longbottom.

"We thought we'd practise early morning running to increase our health and stamina," said Peter.

"Crumbs! It's not a bad idea, mind if I join in?" asked Frank.

They exchanged looks of consternation.

"Um, yeah, I guess," said James.

"Oh. It's not for morning running, it's for whatever nefarious thing it was you were up to last night." Frank frowned.

James swallowed.

"Look, Frank, it's about Remus' ongoing indisposition. He … he needs to be outside and we do want to run as well, but we thought we'd meet him while we were out.

Frank frowned.

"Does McGonagall know about him being out?" he asked.

"Yes," said James, glad to be able to be honest. "And the headmaster. But we can help by seeing him home."

"All right, if McGonagall knows, I won't ask questions," said Frank. "I would like to come, but would you rather I started tomorrow?"

"Frank, mate, you're a good friend," said James. "Peter, grab some kit for Remus and Sev, would you?"

"Severus is with him?" Frank asked sharply. "Then my apologies for what I suspected, but …."

"Sev's fine. We are planning on taking turns when he has one of his bad turns," said Sirius.

Frank nodded.

"You're good friends to have, I reckon," he said. "I'd like to join you but I don't dare court mischief the way you lot do, my mother would have my guts for garters if I got a swingeing deten like the one you got last week for what you did to the visiting ministry wizard."

Sirius sniggered. The visiting wizard had been pompous and patted them on the heads and called them 'little boys' and 'little girls' and it had taken their combined wand work to banish the man's robes two feet to the right.

It may be said that Professor Flitwick had been delighted, but the ministry man was somewhat less so, especially as he had Fifi La Folle Magic Kisses boxer shorts on under his robes, and apart from his socks and sock suspenders, nothing else.

They had written one hundred times 'I must try to uphold the dignity of the Ministry' and had voted it worth while.

Severus and Remus were grateful for shorts and singlets to run in.

"Next time, whoever's turn it is must as well as Remus should pack PJs, as well as running kit," said Severus. "I feel rumpled."

"You look rumpled," said James. "And hey, we still have a draught of being a falcon!"

"And we ought to take that with us in case Remus messes up chanting his runes," said Severus.

"Oh, yeah. Right, good thought," said James.

"You don't need a draught of being a falcon, James, you soar like an eagle on your broom," said Petunia.

"Pass me the bag," muttered Severus.

"Sev!" said Lily, severely.

"Well, with you, Sev, and James and Sirius and Petunia, who are bound to make the team next year, we won't ever lose another quidditch shield," said Peter, happily. "James as seeker, and what a team as chasers!"

"If we're picked," said Sirius.

"It's a no-brainer," said Peter.

Severus thought he was probably right; the team was a trifle pedestrian at the moment, and the custom that first years were not played on the team was irksome. However, it was nice to have time to settle in without having so much responsibility, which was probably why the custom had been instituted in the first place.

He was blowing when they got back to the castle, and he wasn't the only one.

"I didn't realise I was so unfit," moaned Sirius.

"Well, that will be remedied by the next month," said Lily. "Oh rats, it's Scotland, what will we do if it snows?"

"Take up cross-country skiing," said Sirius. "I know how to ski downhill, so I can be the one who's one up for a change."

"We'd better write home for skis before the weather worsens, then," said James. "Hey, girls, Peter, Remus, if we all get two sets, and I get three, 'cos I'm the richest, it'll be all good. Marauders ought to stick together, and … and hold property in common."

"You're the best, James," said Peter.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Halloween arrived before thought of skis might be considered and Remus was chanting daily in the hopes of enjoying the party instead of feeling too ill to join in as the moon waxed. Sirius proceeded to hassle Severus until Severus sighed and undertook a frivolous bit of research, and proceeded to inscribe runes with muggle felt pen on Sirius' bare posterior, which turned any farts which broke the circle into insubstantial gurning pumpkin masks. Sirius was well pleased with this work of 'art' and proceeded to eat indigestible food to make large and lurid ones. Severus rolled his eyes. It had been a tricky bit of work, though, and had required shaping and colouring disciplines and he had resorted to a bit of brute force dissection of the formulae of charms as well as runes, and it was all a learning experience. When he understood arithmancy as well as runes, life would become a lot easier because all things would be possible.

"Why don't more people use runes and arithmancy if all things are possible?" asked James, as Severus sounded off about this when he had James a captive audience demanding that his bottom should be embellished too.

"Because most people are lazy gits like you and Siri who like the idea of doing things with runes, but don't have the self discipline to stick to it," said Severus.

"Oh. There is that, I suppose," said James. "There must be enough people with stickability and brains though to do more."

"That's why new spells get invented," said Severus. "But you need vision as well as brains and hard work to get really good spells going. Or a combination of vision and Siri's scatological sense of humour and ideas too wild to be practical to anyone who isn't a genius."

"Go on, stop being modest, tell us how good you really are," said James.

"Your farts will tell you that," said Severus.

An angry and bitter Lucius Malfoy found that the excitement of the party atmosphere left him less well guarded than usual.

 _Let them celebrate their Halloween, and leave me to do what I can about Samhain,_ he thought. The black library of Malfoy Manor was quite as extensive as that of Prince Hall, and Lucius less scrupulous about obeying the dictats of his father over which books he might and might not read. And Lucius had a pen friend in Durmstrang, who explained that part of their advanced Dark Arts class involved summoning dementors. This suited Lucius just fine, since he did not feel able to control a summoning of the full Wild Hunt, but dementors were some of the Unseelie who were easier to control than the higher fae of that dark realm, and Lucius felt quite capable of raising and controlling a couple of them. Especially on Samhain, where his own high fae blood would tell, for this was the night when traditionally masks were worn and turnip lanterns lit to confuse the fae folk as they waxed strong in the physical world, looking for young humans to steal, or bodies to possess, to give them more physical substance. Lucius was well aware of the extra wards which were placed about Malfoy Manor, and stiffened until he was over the age of seven when he was no longer fair game for the veela blood that gave the Malfoy family their sharp, fine features, pale hair, slight build and an aura of charisma which was the echo of the glamour of the all-female veeli.

He found himself a quiet classroom, the holiday being on a Sunday and hence no classes at all being held, and began the ritual.

The Marauders were sticking close to Remus, who might not be totally vulnerable for another two days, but he was still under par. Severus was holding forth.

"And it's all very well to demand that I make a spell of it, you starry-eyed sky-dog you, but there's a huge gap between making effects work with runes and turning them into a formula that any oik can use for the twiddling of his wand."

"Did anyone ever fit a 'cease effect' button when they enchanted your mouth?" asked James, lazily. Severus glared at him.

"You're no better than Sirius, you haven't a clue about the work that goes into spell crafting."

"Nope. That's why we leave it to you."

"And then get cross with me when I can't produce a spell which is beyond me when you don't even understand the complexities of what I'm doing," he said. "Hell, I might as well tell you two to go and play on the Chuddleigh Cannons and pull out a win over the Wimborne Wasps, and it'll occur to you that you don't have the experience or skills yet to even get drafted onto the team never mind be its main stars. Yet."

"Oh, why didn't you put it in nice easy terms like that before?" asked Sirius.

Severus sighed and shook his head.

"You two really are the end at times," he said. "I … _what?_ " suddenly he was cold, his lecturing no use, nothing was of any use. He was six years old, being made to watch the horribly brutal fights of Cassius Clay, or Mohammed Ali as he had become, and his father was telling him it was about time he learned such manly arts. 'Ali would teach you to be a man', he said, and that was so frightening that Severus had used accidental magic to short out all the electricity, closing down the television, and then he was being beaten by his father so hard he had wet himself. Severus curled up in a ball, hardly aware that all his friends were doing likewise.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" the words rang out, and the terror lifted. Severus found he was clinging to a sobbing Lily, and James to Petunia. Other juniors were in no better state.

Fabian Prewett had his wand out and a silvery cockerel was chasing the shadowy beings which had invaded the room out of the window. And then Madam McGonagall had burst in and was casting the same spell, her pearlescent cat joining the cockerel to drive the creatures away.

Severus found his voice first.

"Prewett, you saved us! Madam McGonagall, what was that? They made us, well, me anyway, relive my worst moment! And how did you defeat them, you and Prewett?"

"They are ca'd dementors, Mr. Prince, and they are evil creatures frae ither places," said McGonagall. "The spell is called a Patronus, a protection, cast by drawing on good memories to defeat the evil of the bad. It has ither uses forebye. When ye are in the sixth, ye'll be learning how to cast it the noo."

The Marauders exchanged looks.

They had no intention of waiting until they were in the sixth.

"How did dementors get into the castle, Min … Madam McGonagall?" asked Fabian Prewett. "Gideon got you immediately, of course, and he's checking the rest of the tower."

"I have no idea, but I'm off tae talk to the headmaster," said Madam McGonagall, deciding not to reprove one of the younger members of the Order of the Phoenix for almost using her name.

The headmaster had another headache on his hands since he was dealing with a sobbing Iphianassa Goyle, whose disgraceful detention with Professor Povey had been interrupted by Kelsey Brocklehurst, a Ravenclaw prefect, who had managed to prevent the DADA professor from committing rape on the fourth year Slytherin girl.

"I do….don't know why I threw a dung bomb at him or where it came from," sobbed Iphianassa, "And then he said I must have a detention and he would spank me, and … and I want my mummy!"

This was something Dumbledore did not want to oblige the child with until she had been persuaded that it was better to discuss it with Madam Pomfrey than with her mother. The curse on the position of DADA teacher had never been this embarrassing before.

And he needed to know how many more girls were going to come forward, and planned to question Povey under veritaserum. The distraction of dementors in his school was just too much.

He sent Minerva to round up the rest of the staff to check the boundaries and returned to his questioning.

It turned out that Povey had been in the habit of giving detentions to young girls in which he spanked and fondled, and then confunded. This event was just something that had got out of hand for being unexpected; so that was at least something that could be hushed up. If the girls did not remember anything they would not have any problems, right? He reassured himself. Povey had been careful not to touch girls of prominent families at least. No likely fallout from the Noble and Ancient family Black. And no connection to dementors.

It may be said that Lucius was discovered sitting in apparent resigned obedience in the detention classroom 'waiting for Professor Povey', who was his escort of the afternoon. Nobody knew that Lucius had obtained dung bombs from Zonkos mail order, specifically to cause a diversion, or that he had managed to confund Iphianassa because he was already aware of Povey's predilections and had been blackmailing the DADA professor all term.

Dumbledore gave Iphianassa a pep talk in which he adjured her not to bring the school into disrepute for one bad apple, a man sent over the edge by overwork who was not going to do it again because he was going to go on a rest cure. Iphianassa was cowed into silence, but Dumbledore had made the mistake of not telling Kelsey Brocklehurst to keep silence, and as a result, the name 'Pervy Povey' was all about the school by the time of the feast. Dumbledore however was unaware of this and congratulated himself on managing to contain a scandal. And … and he might blame the dementors on the DADA teacher who could have summoned them for a demonstration to a student, and lost control of them because he was having a nervous breakdown. And if the Marauders were of the opinion that if Povey had managed to summon dementors at the same time as he was perving Iphianassa, as James put it, then doubtless it was only because Lucius Malfoy had put him up to it, and had made the unfortunate middle schooler into a distraction.

"Or a reward for good behaviour if she owed Malfoy something or he had something on her," suggested Severus.

This was held to be as likely as anything by his confederates. They alone in the school suspected Lucius Malfoy of being behind the dementors one way or another; though it has to be said that Narcissa Black was wondering hard herself.

She waylaid the two Marauding girls.

"Well met, Miss Evans, Miss Evans," she said.

Lily curtseyed beautifully, Petunia a little more awkwardly, largely because it made her feel silly.

"Well met, Miss Black," said Lily.

Narcissa cleared her throat.

"I understand Gryffindor tower came under attack from dementors," she said.

"Yes," said Lily.

"No other houses suffered this," said Narcissa. "I happen to know that Lucius Malfoy has boasted of being able to raise dementors. And his, er, babysitter of the time was supposed to be Professor Povey who was … distracted."

"It's a pity you're so elderly or you'd be a real asset to the Marauders," said Petunia.

Narcissa blinked. Being referred to as 'elderly' by babes in the first when she was a fifth year and a prefect was no real big deal, but no Slytherin would put it that way.

"Uh, what are Marauders?" she asked.

"Us," said Petunia. "Your cousin Sirius, James, Sev, Remus, Peter and us too. We stand against bullies and death eaters."

"Oh!" said Narcissa. "I … I do owe you something of a debt. I wrote to my parents and managed to make it sound as if Lucius was … not too tightly wrapped. I don't think he is, actually, to be honest," she admitted with more candour than she would have used towards any Slytherin.

"He's barking," said Petunia. "Unfortunately he's barking, and powerful and nasty, and the combination isn't good."

"We don't like him," said Lily, demurely. "Would your parents make you marry him? Because of his family?"

"It's like this, kiddie," said Narcissa. "My oldest sister, Bellatrix, is betrothed to Rodolphus Lestrange, currently head of games in Slytherin house. She's some years older than him, but it's the family that matters and a Lestrange boy was promised to her when she was born. My next sister, Andromeda, was similarly promised to Lucius Malfoy. However, she refused to honour the betrothal and ran off with … with a muggleborn student, one Ted Tonks. She's been expunged from the family tree."

Lily and Petunia exchanged glances.

"Well, I don't suppose our parents would ever disown us even if we married someone they hated," said Lily. "Even Tiberius Prince has taken Sev's mum home since she wants to leave her husband she was disowned over."

"The Black family is very traditional," said Narcissa, trying to sound haughty and succeeding in sounding scared. "And the betrothal may be honoured with the next daughter as they hadn't got around to finding me anyone."

"But not if he's barking?" said Petunia.

"This is what I'm hoping," said Narcissa. "And I'm convinced he confunded the Goyle girl to provide a distraction for him. He has no scruples at all, and I'm … I'm afraid of him."

"Right," said Lily. "I think we'd better make you an honorary Marauder, and we'll keep an eye out for you if you keep an eye on him for us."

"It sounds a fair deal," said Narcissa. "I'm beginning to think that Andi and Sirius weren't as crazy as I thought at first for opting out of Slytherin. Malfoy has his spies at every level and mostly they are just ready and gagging to go off to serve Voldemort. And I know some things about Voldemort that most of them don't, because the Lestrange boys' father was at Hogwarts with him, and you cannot accuse Rodolphus and Rabastan of being the sharpest sticks in the bundle. Lord Voldemort is no more than one Tom Riddle, who was a half-blood orphan. And I know no wizarding family called Riddle, so he's probably also a bastard. So much for the pure bloods who follow him!"

"Well, that's interesting," said Lily. "I expect they don't really care so long as they can grab power, but it's worth bearing in mind. We Marauders aren't terribly interested in blood status, just in fighting bullies."

"And at that I wonder if you might be purer in your motives," said Narcissa, bitterly. "Good day to you."

"Good day, Miss Black," they chorused.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Are you nutters?" asked Sirius. "That's my tight-arsed cousin Narcissa you're talking about."

"She's very nice as big girls go," said Lily. "And if she's scared of Malfoy it behoves us to help look out for her. And besides, making friends with pure bloods and doing the etiquette shit is what was all agreed on."

"Well, yeah, but this is my cousin."

"She said you and her sister might have had the right idea getting out of Slytherin," said Lily. "I reckon she's one scared lady at the moment, 'cos of her parents wanting her to marry Lucius. It's a shame you're so intermarried or you could offer for her, and then mutually break it off later when Lucius is squibified."

"I don't suppose the Noble and Ancient family Black would care about us being closely related," said Sirius. "She's a classy wench."

"There is no way you can call Narcissa Black a 'wench', you!" scolded Petunia.

"Well what else should I call her?"

"Lady?" suggested Lily.

"Nah, she's still a fifth former, you can't call schoolkids ladies."

"Well you're no lady," said Petunia.

"She has you there, mate," said James. "Petunia, you are a wench, and I like you the better for it."

"I should take exception to that," giggled Petunia.

"Oh really!" sighed Lily. "Aren't you two rather too young to flirt?"

"Tuney's safe to practise on … OW!" James jumped as Petunia fired a stinging hex into his foot.

"Serve you right," said Severus. "Make him dance until he apologises, Tuney."

Petunia giggled.

"Oh, showing him that I can is enough," she said.

It was Sirius' turn to get a letter next, which he read with a curious expression.

"Merlin's bedsocks!" he said. "My dad just congratulated me on taking an interest in politics, and the Wizgamot because I wrote to him about how criminals are handled; I think this is the first time he's ever praised me!" his eyes were hungry.

"Then you got lucky," said Severus. "Nothing I could do would make my dad praise me, because I'd have to be a beef-brained muggle like him."

"Sorry about that, mate," said Sirius. "But I'm not that interested in politics, what should I do?"

"Learn enough to make it seem that you are, because you're the heir, and that puts you in a position to protect Remus and the girls if people start caving in to the tripe this Voldemort and his followers are trying to get people to listen to, because the ministry will roll over and play dead," said Severus, intensely. "And I plan to do the same as scion of Prince."

"But it's boring!"

"Yeah? I'd rather have time with something boring than the excitement of watching a Ministry executioner behead Remus as a dangerous creature, or see Lily and Tuney carted off to an internment camp for the Impure, and I've heard both views put," said Severus. Sirius paled.

"Well when you put it like that …"

"There was a muggle who once said that war is diplomacy carried on by different means. Well politics is war carried on by different means."

"Bloody good point, actually," said James. "Trouble is, Siri and I are better at action."

"We sometimes have to do the things we are less suited for," shrugged Severus. "My dad made me learn boxing, a muggle fighting skill, and I hated it, but I learned to be good at it because it hurt less."

"I get the idea, I'll learn politics," said Sirius. "And I'm going to take your other advice and ask for betrothal enquiries to be made with Narcissa."

"I think it will give her the safety net she needs, and then she will feel safer about helping us," said Severus.

"And she's so beautiful," said Remus, and then blushed.

"Crumbs, our Remus, you can't have a Case this young," said James.

"Aw, don't rag him," said Peter. "We may think girls are icky but Frank holds hands with Alice."

They all laughed.

"I think it's more a question of Alice holds hands with Frank and he's too nice to tell her to back off," said James. "I like Frank, but he ain't a Marauder, is he?"

"No," said Sirius. "I have less trouble with having Narcissa as an honourary one. Damn, I'd better go and talk to her about being betrothed for her own protection."

OoOoOo

"You said what, Cousin Sirius?" Narcissa stared.

"I said that one way to stop you being betrothed to a cad like Malfoy or a buffoon like Rabastan Lestrange was to be betrothed to me," said Sirius. "We don't have to go through with it, and that gives you six years breathing space until I'm of age, or in very real terms, seven, until I leave school."

"I … good grief, Sirius, how did you come up with that idea?"

"I didn't; it was my friend Sev Prince, because our friends Lily and Tuney like you. And anyone who doesn't like Malfoy is worth getting to know better, in my book," said Sirius. "I don't do romantic so don't even look for me to go down on one knee like a prat, because I don't actually want anything to do with girls yet, outside of friendship."

"No, I can see that. And it's not as if Rodolphus isn't much younger than Bellatrix. I … thank you, Sirius, my parents are not happy about me wanting to refuse a betrothal to Lucius."

"Yeah, well, Uncle Cygnus isn't a lot more tightly wrapped than my mother, is he? Uncle Alphard is pretty decent. I think actually it's a really bad idea for us actually to get married because there is madness in the family and it's mostly in my dear old mum and your sweet sister, and if we had brats they'd probably wind up in the Janus Thickey ward."

"There is that, but my father and your mother have no inkling that they take their ideals past sanity, so I doubt they'd care. Your father, on the other hand might raise a few objections."

"He won't stand against mother."

"I was considering trying to get to know one of the Prewett boys; they are pure blooded, and we do have a precedent of their uncle, Ignatius Prewett, marrying your Aunt Lucretia so they aren't so likely to be muttering the Gryffindor mantra that all Slytherin are evil."

Sirius brightened.

"Well, it would be a thought; but if you hang out with us a bit more, you're more likely to meet them informally. Gideon is a bit of a player, always one for the girls, but Fabian is pretty steady, and decent to us younger ones. Not that Gideon isn't, but Fabian goes out of his way to help out."

"Thanks," said Narcissa. "Has he got a partner for the Yule Ball?"

"Not as far as I know. I tell you what, I'll write to my father and suggest that an alliance with the Prewetts would be pretty sensible in these times of suspicion, and ask him to put it to Uncle Cygnus. I'd rather not be immolated on the altar of marriage, I'm too young to die."

Narcissa laughed.

"I'll ask Fabian into Hogsmeade," she said.

"Gideon will question your motives," warned Sirius.

She pulled a face.

"Well, I'll have to live with that."

"Straight up, Cousin Cissy? Tell him like it is. Tell him you dislike and fear Malfoy and that your kid cousin vouched for him as decent, and that he'd be acceptable to your parents, and you want a marriage of convenience and if it develops into more, all well and good, but if not, there's no reason to be uncivil about it. Gryffindors like being told a straight story, and if there's a damsel in distress in the case, the big ones like it even better. We don't do subtle in Gryffindor Tower!"

"I shall have to give it a try," said Narcissa. "And I hope Lucius ends up having to go to the ball with Dolly Umbridge, who looks like a toad and screeches like a banshee."

"Oh that horrid female who has pink bows in her hair who titters a lot, especially when people are in trouble? He's welcome to her," said Sirius.

"She's one who pinches and nips slyly, and throws her weight around with anyone younger than herself; I can't stand her," said Narcissa. "I reckon if she had been in the same year as Bella, between them they'd have made Voldemort look like a pussy cat. She has a down on all part-humans, she's been trying for years to get Flitters sacked, but he's too clever to admit to being part … whatever he is. She hasn't a clue that Malfoy is part Veela, or she'd probably go off him instead of simpering at him like a love-struck duck."

"Pass the bag, already!" said Sirius.

"Yes, it is pretty sickening," said Narcissa. "And you'd better make sure she never finds out that your friend is a werewolf; she hates them."

"And who says I have a friend who is a werewolf?" said Sirius.

"Well, I thought it was obvious as he isn't likely to be having PMT and period pains every month," said Narcissa. "But so long as he isn't out trying to eat people … what do you do, chain him up?"

"He has runic protection which allows him to retain his mind," said Sirius, recognising that dissembling was useless. "He isn't a werewolf at all so long as he chants and wears the amulet. Just a bit … furry."

Narcissa raised her eyebrows.

"Powerful stuff."

Sirius shrugged.

"Sev Prince. He's good at that sort of thing. So is Remus for that matter. You can run with us if you like early in the mornings; we do it to keep fit to sustain spells longer and it covers for Remus on those nights."

Narcissa nodded.

"I will. Do the Prewett boys go?"

"Are you kidding? They like their bed!"

"Oh well." She managed not to look disappointed. "Thanks, Sirius; I appreciate you sticking to family, even if you do have your differences with us. I … I write to Andi, you know. I can't out of school, but school owls tell no tales."

"Yeah? Well send her my congratulations on a successful rebellion. My dear old mum wand-burned her out of the family tree but I don't see why marrying muggle-born is such a crime. Look at our own inbred family and its madness, and the Malfoys have trouble breeding. A bit of new blood is good, right?"

Narcissa shrugged.

"Possibly. I like your muggleborn friends, they are nice polite girls. If everyone who was new to magic was as cultured, I think there'd be fewer objections. And I'm going to be teaching etiquette and writing to the kids in Slytherin who haven't been taught properly, too."

"You're OK, Cissy," said Sirius.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Please tell me what it's like to be a muggle, Tuney," said the Hufflepuff girl.

"I didn't say you could use my nickname Charity Burbage," snapped Petunia.

"Yeah, piss off and leave her alone," said James, flipping his wand to push the girl backwards with a spell. Charity tripped and fell.

"James! How dare you!" Lily turned on him.

"What? I was defending Tuney," said James.

"No you weren't, you were bullying Charity, and sure, Tuney didn't say she could use her name, but what about gentlemen not swearing at ladies? Never mind hexing her!"

"Oh come on," James laughed. "It wasn't much and she needs to learn not to mess with Marauders."

" _That_ ," said Severus, "Would have sounded fine if you'd said 'death eaters' not 'Marauders' and I'm with Lily. Charity, it wasn't polite to use Petunia's nickname, but I apologise for my friend for acting like a git."

"Do you _want_ Lily and Tuney to be pestered by that silly little thing?" demanded Sirius.

"I want to continue to stand up against bullies and that means not letting my friends behave like Malfoy," said Severus, coldly.

"Oh really, Sev…"

"Yes, really," said Lily, equally coldly. "You were wearing pure-blood sneers there, both of you, and if hexing a kid without provocation isn't bullying, I don't know what is. Tuney, say something!"

"She's right, James, Sirius," Petunia spoke up. "And I don't mind answering Charity's questions, but I won't answer to 'Tuney' without giving permission on it."

"And that's because of bullies at our old school," said Lily.

"They called me 'Tuna' and then 'Haddock'," said Petunia.

"Oh Petunia how horrid! And … and Petunia is such a pretty name!" declared Charity. "My daddy calls me Cherry, but I don't mind anyone using that, if they only would, and I won't pester, I … I'm just fascinated by muggle things like eclectriciy."

"Electricity," said Severus. "And actually I think it wouldn't do any pure blood types any harm to learn about muggle ways as well as for muggleborn to learn wizarding ways. It might make for fewer misunderstandings."

"I agree," said Lily. "Right, we'll have a Saturday class when Sev, Tuney and I teach Charity and the rest of you Marauders, and Narcissa if she wants to come, about how muggles live because I bet you haven't a clue, and I know from some comments I've had to deal with that a lot of wizards assume our parents talk in grunts and can't read."

"Oh, can muggles read? I didn't know that," said Peter.

"Of course muggles can read! Who do you think taught us?" demanded Lily.

"Well, I thought you learned from Sev's grandfather," said Peter.

"Oh for crying out loud!" said Lily, in disgust. "You'll be telling me next you didn't know that muggles can compose and play music or produce fine art. And your mouth dropping open means it hadn't ever occurred to you. The only thing different about muggles is that they do not have access to one kind of art – magic. The same as squibs, and since we've been taking tea with Mr. Filch and learning all he knows about the history of Hogwarts, you wouldn't be writing him off as stupid, would you? Even if his fool parents stopped educating him properly when he didn't display magic. This is why we're studying our lessons over with him to help him at least learn more about our world even if he can't ever do much magic."

"Oh, yeah, right," said Peter. "Sorry."

"Nobody ever tells us things like this!" said Charity, her eyes glowing. "Or what … electricity," she pronounced it carefully, "is for."

"It's for things we use wands for," said Lily. "Like light; electric light."

"So it copies spells?"

"No! What would be the point of the statute of secrecy if muggles copied the things they aren't supposed to know about?" said Severus. "I've never understood where that wizarding superstition arose. They go about things in a different way. Muggles discovered that ice helps preserve food, and at first they cut ice to put in ice houses but when they discovered electricity they discovered they could use it to make ice, and no, I don't know precisely how, but they can, so they have chill cabinets called refrigerators which work a bit like preserving cabinets, but not for as long, and freezers, which totally freeze food but you have to defrost it. But that's mostly for richer muggles," he added. "Most muggles have a fridge. But not all muggles have the same things. Not all muggles have cars*, which are a vehicle like a carriage but it has a … a mechanical device to make it go, instead of horses, in the same sort of way the express has a steam engine. Only they've developed engines that work in other ways to make them smaller," he added.

"Gosh!" said Charity. "That makes sense, not everyone owns a carriage and horses either. And not everyone has a preserving cabinet, because they're quite expensive."

Sirius had opened his mouth to say that of course everyone had a preserving cabinet, but saw Peter and Remus nodding agreement and shut it again.

"I've walked the road of poverty-stricken muggle, or might as well have been, as well as tasting the luxury of being a wealthy wizard's heir," said Severus. "I'm well aware that there are worlds of difference between the highest and lowest in both societies. Mr. Evans is a well-paid muggle, he is in charge of lots of other muggles, and he has a car, and colour TV … bother, we'll get to TV another time," he added.

"I want to learn, there's a lot of half blood and muggleborn in Hufflepuff House, but they brush me off and won't tell me things!" said Charity.

"I wonder why?" muttered Sirius then yelped when Petunia kicked him in the ankle.

"I don't mind you asking and if you don't make fun, I'll let you use my nickname, Cherry, but not in front of other people," said Petunia. "And perhaps you can tell me why you Hufflepuffs don't use any etiquette."

Charity blushed.

"Oh, Madam Sprout said her Badgers should look upon all as equals and did not need to confuse those who weren't pure blood with it, and though I'm nearly pure blood, I didn't learn it at home because we're not well enough off to be likely to be making alliances, and people like the Noble and Ancient Family Black are too stuck up to be likely to …." She petered off, blushing as she realised who Sirius was.

In a mercurial change of mood so typical of him, Sirius chose to find this hilarious and laughed.

"Well, Burbage, I was going to discard all the high-falutin' nonsense but Sev talked me into keeping it because it has its place. And if we're going to be learning about muggles, I suppose if you've got any muggleborn friends, we can teach them about etiquette, and penmanship."

"Oh, I haven't really got any friends," said Charity. "The ones who aren't muggleborn think I'm insane and the ones who are think I'm pushy, like you did. And I'm not, I just want to understand."

"And you won't if you don't ask questions," said Lily. "Well, if they don't want to learn, we know who aren't going to manage to be movers and shakers. If you can understand people from the highest level of wizarding society, Cherry, to how muggles think, happen we might be voting for you as Minister of Magic one day."

"Do you think so?" asked Charity.

"Oh, I can quite imagine it," said Lily. "Hey, boys! Nothing wrong with cross house friendships, let's adopt Cherry as a Marauder. We need people with the vision to understand more people."

"Hell, why not?" said James. "Adopting Narcissa made our numbers arithmantically dodgy with eight, having nine is much more the thing. So long as you don't rag Tuney."

"Oh no, I never would!" said Charity, earnestly

"She's a bit of a dweeb, but it won't do us any harm to have members in every house," said James. "Anyway, I guess it's nice for the girls to have a few more girls, and I'd rather have an earnest sort of dweeb than a giggler."

"There is that," said Sirius. "And Sev's right about needing people to fight Death Eaters, there's no point trying to do it all ourselves. And I guess we were a bit out of line, though I'm not sure I'd care to admit it to the girls."

James flushed.

"I remembered how we discussed squib baiting after Lily and Tuney had a go at me, over hexing Charity," he muttered. "I don't want them comparing me to Malfoy."

"We are privileged and I guess we don't know how other folk live," said Sirius. "I reckon we might have to ask Sev if he can invite us for the hols to stay with his granddad and take us out and about a bit."

"Yeah, neat idea," said James. "Peter ain't that well off, he only has his mum, and Remus' parents live like muggles in the muggle world, he told me, to hide his condition from the wizarding community."

"Can't blame them," said Sirius. "I wonder if Mr. Prince can cure him entirely?"

"Have to wait and see, I guess," said James, with a shrug. "I'd say his help to Sev has made a massive difference already."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "I was about to suggest going to hex a few Slytherin but I guess Lily and Tuney and Sev would tick us off."

"Well I suppose we're sort of working with Greengrasse and his gang," said James, sighing. "We could hex some Ravenclaws."

"And we'd still be told off," said Sirius. "I don't mind getting into trouble, but I don't like the girls giving me their 'we're so ashamed of you' looks, and Sev sneering at us as though we're maggots. And Prince isn't as prominent as Black, but he makes me feel like I'm a worm."

"Yeah, and we don't want him and the girls and Remus deciding to toss you and me out," said James, in lively horror.

"They do need our connections," said Sirius.

"Siri, mate, Sev doesn't need connections, he's going to be one of those people who is talked about in the paper for winning awards and prizes and things. And I don't want to lose our friendship with any of them. We have something special and we are going to have to be careful not to lose that because of being too … too pureblooded."

"Yeah, I guess so," said Sirius. "And I thought that just stepping away from my family and being in Gryffindor was going to make it so easy."

"It ain't though…" James sighed.

"At least you and I understand each other," said Sirius.

Severus watched Sirius and James.

"You know, Lily, I am glad we joined with Sirius and James," he said.

"You are? I find them awfully childish at times," said Lily.

"Yeah, they're all of that and so very fond of their pampered selves," said Severus. "I reckon if they'd just been a pair, or had collected a couple of people who would admire them like Peter does, they might have been bullies."

Lily considered this.

"I wouldn't say you were wrong," she said. "They have an arrogance to them."

"Yes, and we sort of need to keep that under control," said Severus. "Though I bet part of it is showing off because they aren't the princes of their household any more, well, for James it is."

"And Sirius was so lifted by his dad's approval, I reckon he is ready to be bumptious to show he doesn't care. You were a bit like that before you said you could see about fixing Tuney's magic."

"Was I? then I guess I should be more sympathetic to him," Severus said. "And I will try to help him learn things to make his father proud of him. They need to know we do value them, but we won't tolerate bad behaviour."

"Remus doesn't say a lot but he's more likely to speak out now," said Lily. "He was willing to let them walk on him just to have friends who didn't mind."

"But now he's not so moody either, and he knows we all care," said Severus. "I think we are going to be able to really help a lot of people, you know, and maybe help more people than Avery to break away from the Death Eaters. He'll be fine with Greengrasse. But I really think we're being way too serious, and we'd get Sirius and James being happier if we could pull off some massive jape and prank the whole school."

"Any idea what?"

"Well, no, but we need to put our minds to it, and it has to be funny and not upset anyone. Or not anyone reasonable."

"Well, you're the one with brains Sev."

"Abrogating responsibility!"

"Yes, and why not?" she laughed.

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* Remembering that this is 1971 when most muggles in the UK did not have cars, and not all had fridges or TVs, and of those who had TVs, they were mostly black and white. And I'm drawing of memories of growing up in a much more affluent Blue Collar area than Spinner's End.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Severus had an idea for a prank in transfigurations, when making buttons into beetles. He was so impressed with himself that he promptly made four scarab beetles and persuaded them to walk across the desk like Egyptians, as far as this was possible for beetles.

"Och, noo, I dinnae reca' that I said you cuid get creative, Mr. Prince," said Madam McGonagall. Severus beamed at her seraphically.

"Och, weel, I know yon look," sighed the transfigurations teacher. "I can only warn ye tae be judeecious aboot whatever mischief ye're planning, laddie!"

Severus achieved a look of injured innocence and wondered why his teacher sighed even harder.

"I was thinking about a plague of insects," said Severus.

"That isn't harmless, some people don't like insects," objected Lily.

"I was considering butterflies rather than beetles though," said Severus. "And I know how to summon with runes, because … well I confess it, I was ragged in ancient runes."

"You, Sev, mate?" James raised an eyebrow.

Severus shrugged.

"They resented firsties sitting in on their lessons and especially me being ahead of them, and actually, I'm more ahead of them too, because when I was first there, Belby, who's a toerag's toerag as well as being so much of a Ravenclaw he can't get his head through a door without reducing charms, told me I'd missed the last homework assignment and told me to look for a particular book in the library. Well, as it turned out, it was a piece of fourth year work, but it means I know a bit about hieroglyphs."

"Yeah, but so what?" asked Sirius, throwing the core of his apple at Severus. Severus absently pureed it with his wand and sent it back where it had come, to a yelp from Sirius.

"Don't start food fights if you can't finish them," said Severus. "It's relevant because all the formulae in ancient Egyptian tombs are about summoning thousands bread, beer and alabaster, and if you don't stop pulling faces you baboon I won't tell you what that means."

"It means you've flipped," said Sirius, rudely.

"It means if I can summon bread, beer and alabaster, I can summon anything I can get a hieroglyph for," said Severus, severely. "And though bees are easier, I can do butterflies."

"I presume there was a way of activating these summoning charms for the mummies to use in their tombs?" asked Lily. "And I did wonder if it was a rag, but I read it too, just in case it wasn't because it's not like the work is hard, even if I'm not as good at it as you."

"Yes, because I went and did the research on it," said Severus. "The _ka_ , or double of the dead person, oh for goodness sake! Do you want to accept what I say, James, or do you need me to tell you that the Egyptians believed that a dead soul had three parts?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not to the rest of you types, no," said Severus. "Just assume it's a matter of chanting them and I'll have to teach you all what to chant, and sort of attach it to the receptacles we're going to deface with hieroglyphs, which I thought could be the soup tureens."

"Oh so we have it happen on each table? We have Cissy and Cherry, but no Ravers," said Sirius.

"I was going to get Belby to activate it, actually," said Severus.

"He's not hardly likely to do that for the asking," snorted Sirius.

"No, but will he be able to resist showing off that he also read ahead and can read hieroglyphs," said Severus.

"Sev, mate, that's actually brilliant," said James. Severus beamed.

"I was moderately pleased with it myself," he said. "I'm just hoping as the junior end is nearest the staff table it will be enough to activate their tureen."

"Oh well, if it doesn't, it will be fun anyway," said Peter.

"Do I have to be loud? I won't half be ragged by my class if they know it's me," said Charity.

"No, whispering under your breath is fine," said Severus. "Equally for Miss Black," he bowed to Narcissa.

"I know how to activate the staff table one," said Narcissa. "Though why I'm involving myself in a childish prank I don't know."

"Because Lucius Malfoy is the only person in the world who has a phobia about butterflies, that's why," said Severus. "I saw him exploding them in the garden and when Madam Sprout ticked him off, he said they gave him the creeps."

"Well that makes sense then," said Narcissa. "You want a tricky little combination of spells; _sonorous_ which projects your voice, and a directional control and limiting spell to aim it just where you want, and you'd better learn to cast it wandlessly too, or the staff will be on you for pointing wand at them. The incantation is ' _directio specificans sub perimeter eight feet_ ' or whatever the distance is."

"Neat," said Severus. "I need to practise that."

"How are we going to put runes on the tureens, and won't the butterflies drown in the soup?" asked Lily.

"They won't because we only activate the runes when the lid is lifted off to reveal them," said Severus. "And we do it with muggle nail varnish and I wrote to your mum to ask her to get us some, for marking our names on kit, which is what muggles do on bikes and camping gear and stuff. And she sent me some in bright red and some in pale pink for marking darker things, so we're all good. And I already talked to the elves in the kitchen, and they're up for it so long as the varnish comes off, which it will because your mum sent me some nail varnish remover as well in case of accidents, because she's brainy like that, and so long as the soup isn't harmed, which it won't be, because the butterflies will generate above the surface of it, and be repelled upwards. I didn't think we wanted thousands so I worked out a summoning for six hundred."

"Oh, right, I might have known you'd have thought it through, Sev," said Lily.

"You know, Sev, being a smart arse isn't always an attractive trait," said James.

"I'm glad he's a smart arse," said Remus, quietly, fingering his amulet.

"Yeah, Remus mate, there is that," said James. "I'd laugh if he got something wrong and ended up in neck-deep …whatever that Greek word is for overreaching yourself royally."

"I think you mean hubris," said Narcissa.

"That's the bunny," agreed James. "So when are we going to do it?"

"Lily and Remus and I need to paint the tureens, and then it'll be the next meal when we have soup," said Severus. "At least, so long as you lot can hold the chant to activate them."

"So long as you put it in English writing so we don't have to read bird-bird-squiggle-tree-feather or whatever it is," said Sirius.

"Relax, I have a transliteration of it," said Severus.

"And who needs a dicker when Sev has swallowed one and knows what we need."

"I didn't know hubris," Severus said, mildly. "It's a new one for me. I thought you meant Nemesis."

"That's the bloke who pursues you when your sins find you out," said James.

Severus rolled his eyes.

"Close enough, I suppose," he said.

Severus and Lily went to the kitchen, Remus having felt he couldn't copy hieroglyphs well enough yet, though he had the chant off pat. The tureens were waiting for them.

"And if you can't get the marks off after, Mister Severus, you won't get any more desserts for the rest of your life!" squeaked the head kitchen house elf.

"It'll be fine," said Severus. "Here's the cleaning fluid, and Lily and I will clean them off tonight, if we don't have a massive detention because of it."

"Don't let anyone touch it, it's quite nasty stuff," said Lily. "I don't know whether it might hurt elves."

"But it will wash off and be harmless," added Severus. "Lily, I thought we'd pour the varnish out into plates we make out of kitchen foil, and draw with cocktail sticks."

Lily nodded.

"That makes sense. Will they need wand work to get them ready?"

"Probably. I can just touch wand to them though to get them prepared, the scribes didn't use wands in the tombs, the priests set them up when the artists and scribes left."

"Right. Is 'a voice offering to the spirit of the high wizard' what sets them up for being activated by chanting?"

"Yes, as you know it would normally be a voice offering in the name of Wennenefer, or Osiris as he's generally known, to the spirit of the recipient, and I hope it'll work well enough as he does have a spirit, just embodied."

"Now you tell me it might not work?"

"Hush! It'll work. I managed to get it to summon daisies from a piece of paper for me."

"Oh, that's okay then," Lily grinned at him.

Severus had kept the summoning spell as short as possible as drawing hieroglyphs was a painstaking business at the best of times.

"Peret kherw en-ka-en hkay em khh sa-aa sen-dunh." Severus nodded in satisfaction. It had needed a bit of research but he was sure it would work.

And then he remembered that he would need to do the small tureen for Lucius Malfoy; doubtless Narcissa would be pleased to activate that from a distance. They had already agreed that she and Charity were not to own up if the headmaster called for it, being isolated in their houses.

Dinner was served!

And the big tureens of soup had the lids removed for servings to be made. Severus left his friends chanting under their breaths as he pointed and whispered,

" _Sonorous directio specificans sub perimeter twelve feet_ ," he guessed, and then chanted the phrase. There were ejaculations of surprise all around, and the tureen in front of the headmaster suddenly erupted with butterflies.

"Bless my soul!" said Dumbledore.

"More a blessing to your spirit, headmaster," said Bathsheba Babbling, leaning over and reading the runes. "Kiss-wings? An ingenious way of describing butterflies. Most original."

"Yes, but I want my soup," said Dumbledore, plaintively.

"I'm afraid you will have to wait for the emergence of several hundred butterflies, and then you can get at it," said Madam Babbling.

"The soup will be quite edible, I hope?" asked Dumbledore.

"Oh yes, headmaster," Madam Babbling assured him.

Dumbledore cast his own _sonorous_ spell.

"Pray do not be alarmed," he said. "The butterflies will dissipate in their own good time and the soup beneath is unharmed. A little patience is required, Mr. Malfoy, there is no need for you to be behaving like a moppet on a hornet nest. Dear me, what have the Ravenclaws got instead of butterflies?"

"Oh dear what has that idiot Belby done?" groaned Severus. "Oh, he's only gone and translated in his mind too literally." Ravenclaw's table was being menaced by winged lips fluttering around kissing the unfortunate Ravenclaws. "Oh that's even more priceless than Malfoy having hysterics like a little girl," Severus added. He was convulsed in laughter.

Most of the rest of the school, when over the initial shock, were laughing at Malfoy cowering under his table, and at the Ravenclaws being well bussed.

"Who is the author of this … decorative prank?" asked Dumbledore, as he helped himself to soup once the butterflies had fluttered off.

The Gryffindor Marauders rose as a body.

"Well well! Enterprising industry in a very under-used academic study," said Dumbledore. "Dear me, I am not sure whether to dock points for a prank or add them for the entertainment. What went wrong with Ravenclaw's butterflies?"

"I made a miscalculation and assumed that Belby had more than two braincells to rub together," said Severus in disgust. "I thought he'd work out butterflies from kiss-wings, but apparently he's not a scholar and just barks at print. I knew he wouldn't be able to resist showing off to his girlfriend that he can read hieroglyphs," he added.

"Dear me! How unfortunate that Mr. Belby does not live up to your expectations. It appears that the rune-readers on the other tables have managed to make the logical leap. How did you er, activate the staff table?"

"Remote chanting, sir," said Severus. "I nearly split my tongue in half and twisted my fingers in knots casting the wretched distance speaking spell wandlessly."

"My goodness, a man of many talents!" said the headmaster. "Well, I don't think it warrants any loss of points, but you children are on your honour to help the elves remove your, er, runic embellishments."

"Sir, we already promised them that we would," said Severus.

"Don't tell him that, he'll add something else," hissed James.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Well then, you have had the forethought to devise your own consequences," he said, and sat down.

Horace Slughorn had dismissed the butterflies menacing Malfoy, and Flitwick had done likewise with the winged lips around his Ravenclaws, and the other butterflies fluttered about the great hall until they dissipated of their own accord. It was a cheerful and summery sight on a grey and dismal day, and most people were cheered up accordingly, laughing and chatting about the audacity of the Marauders.

It may be said that both Charity Burbage and Narcissa Malfoy joined the other to help clean the tureens after dinner and the others appreciated their sense of honour.


	14. Chapter 14

_**thanks Guest, hope you continue to enjoy day by day with the chapter updates!**_

 **Chapter 14**

Narcissa smiled austerely at the children as she joined them on their run next morning.

"I have secured Fabian Prewett as my partner for the ball," she said, with satisfaction.

"Shall Tuney do your hair?" asked Lily. "She's ever so good at it."

"I was thinking of being a hairdresser before I had the chance to be a witch," said Petunia.

"It's a menial position, though I'd be delighted to accept," said Narcissa, hoping the child knew what she was doing. "You can do much better for yourself, you know."

"Yes, but in the muggle world we were in a rotten primary school and hadn't got a cat's chance in hell of getting into the grammar school*, and without getting into a grammar school you can kiss goodbye to the chances of a place in university," said Petunia. "And we're not badly off, but where you live determines which school you go to, and it's the sort of school where the teachers have nervous breakdowns and bullies don't get in trouble because their dads would beat up the headmaster."

"That's horrible! I didn't know muggles lived in such conditions," said Narcissa.

"Oh, it's not about being a muggle, it's about being stuck in a rotten neighbourhood," said Petunia.

"It's a rough place, Narcissa," said Severus. "Muggles have a range of wealth and privilege the same as wizarding folk, and the Evans family is way better off than my father. Now that's partly because he's a drunken bum who loses jobs more frequently than he gets them, but he's not alone. There aren't many jobs any more, factories are closing, and machines are replacing people. Muggles have almost outsmarted themselves in making clever machines, because clever machines replace stupid or ill-educated people, and that causes all kinds of social problems. And it shows in poor neighbourhoods. And don't ask me why my mother married my father because I don't know, and I expect she must have had a good reason at the time, but I'll tell you something else. There are families as poor as mine was, but the kids are happier than you are, because what they lack in things, they have love in abundance."

"Like Andi and her Ted," said Narcissa longingly.

Severus shrugged.

"So long as they don't find themselves quarrelling because their backgrounds are so different," he said. "I hope they can get on, but my mum and dad must have loved each other once."

"At least Ted is a wizard, just muggleborn," said Narcissa.

"Yes, that should help," said Severus. "He's not going to beat her for 'funny business' like dad did to mum."

"And you?" Narcissa asked shrewdly.

Severus shrugged.

"And me," he said. "But that's over. My grandfather is strict but he's not harsh. He'll only beat me if he thinks I need it, and not hard or many strokes. I don't have to worry if I'm going to drown in vomit while I'm unconscious or anything like that."

Narcissa gasped, less at the revelation that this was something the little boy had once had to worry about than at the matter of fact way in which he said it, showing it to be something that had happened more than once. She smiled to see Lily's hand slipping into that of the self-contained little boy. And now she knew that their parents were not brutal or ignorant, because of the discussions about muggles at the weekends; and she knew that Mr. Evans wanted to better himself and was doing qualifications by mail, in order to be able to take a better job, one for which his brains were suited. And there was nothing stupid about Petunia or Lily, so their parents must be as clever.

"I wonder," said Narcissa, "whether there are wizarding folk who don't have the money to send their children to Hogwarts, whose children grow up lacking the education they ought to have, and wasting good brains?"

"My mother worked all the hours she could to scrimp and save so I could go to Hogwarts, and she put it into a wizarding account so Dad couldn't touch it," said Severus. "Otherwise I'd have been one of them, if I hadn't managed to be sponsored by my grandfather. I think Mum also managed to hold onto some monies she was left and didn't ever touch that. It's not tremendously expensive to go to Hogwarts, not like some of the really prestigious muggle schools, but it's more than someone like … like the driver of the Knight Bus could afford."

"Arnold Shunpike isn't much hand at magic though, and he's not what you might call clever," said Narcissa. "But I suppose there are factory workers in the wizarding world, people who make brooms and potioneering kit and things. I … I suppose some of them are goblins, but maybe I'm wrong there."

"Maybe we should poke around more, and find out," said James.

"Our parents won't let us," said Sirius.

"It's people like me as well," said Peter. "I have a trust fund which pays for me to come here, but without that, my dad being dead, and my ma being sick, I'd be having to work for a living, running errands for shops, or gathering potion ingredients, if I knew enough, or working in a factory because a child's fingers like a goblin's are more nimble. We were a good family once, and I deserve a good education, and I'm glad the fund is there."

"And my family works in the muggle world to hide me," said Remus. "And in the muggle world they have no qualifications, or the knowledge of how to get them. And so they have low paid jobs, and they've sacrificed a lot to send me here, and the headmaster has bent over backwards to allow me to come here, so I mean to do as well as I can."

"Well, I shall talk to Fabian about it, and see what he knows," said Narcissa.

Term was winding up and the Marauders were looking forward to the holidays, especially Remus. The month of December 1971 was a blue moon month, with two full moons, and he would be at home for the second, and he wanted to show his parents what his friend had done for him. Sirius was not sure if he was looking forward to the holidays or not, but at least his letters from his father had been quite cordial since he had been following Severus' advice. James loved his parents in an uncomplicated way and was looking forward to being the most important member of his household again, instead of being just one of the Marauders. Peter was both looking forward to seeing his much loved mother, and dreading having to be cheerful while his heart was breaking over her illness. Lily and Petunia were excitedly anticipating telling their parents all about it, Charity was hoping that her parents would find all she had learned about muggles as exciting as she did, and Narcissa was hoping to be able to talk very fast about Fabian. Fabian had no steady girlfriend and was willing to consider a marriage based on friendship, if they managed to maintain that.

And Severus was looking forward to his grandfather's library, and the continuing education in the sort of things Hogwarts did not teach, and was hoping that his mother had settled in and would not be likely to do or say anything embarrassing.

He wondered why his grandfather's carriage had turned up on the day of the ball.

"I'm afraid you got the day wrong, Mr. Prince," said Albus Dumbledore. "The end of term is tomorrow. I assume you've come to collect Severus?"

"To assume makes an ass of u and me," quoted Tiberius Prince. "I came to see one Argus Filch, as it happens; my son has made friends with him and asked me to see what I could do to awaken the magic depressed by him being born as a squib."

"Is that possible?"

"Evidently, or I wouldn't be here," snapped Prince. "Albus, you were an arrogant little sod at school and time hasn't improved you. You don't know everything, and it doesn't help that however well-meaning you are, you make decisions without knowing all the facts. I'll be seeing Remus Lupin as well, since I've been able to help Severus to minimise the ill effects of his condition; I want to see if it's possible to undertake a ritual to remove it altogether."

"And what do you mean by his 'condition'?" asked Albus.

"Albus, the boy is a werewolf, as all his friends know. You surely had noticed that the … Marauders, I think they call themselves … have been covering for him, and that lately he has not been as ill as one might expect?"

"I … I had not realised he had confided his condition to them. I forbade him to do so."

"He didn't; one of the boys knew the revellaspell when they were undoing him from a bully's curses, as I understand."

"Ah, I see. He was very lucky to fall in with a group who did not vilify him then," Dumbledore said.

"Yes, and a bunch of kids too ambitious not to think about cures," said Tiberius. "Did you hope to isolate him and be his only friend, Albus? So he'd be ripe to spy for you in Voldemort's organisation? If you want a spy you should ask for an adult."

"And who would be likely to spy for me? Most of those who stand against him are not good at dissembling. It crossed my mind, I confess, that he would have learned to be secretive and hide the greater part of himself. The same way muggles tended to recruit homosexuals as spies when it was illegal in their society, because they knew how to be secretive."

"I'd spy on the little creep to give my grandson the chance to grow up free," said Tiberius. "I know he's a blood liar; Severus wrote to me that he's a half-blood called Tom Riddle."

"How did he find that out?" Dumbledore was startled.

Tiberius grinned.

"He's a clever boy is my grandson, or he wouldn't have figured out how to nullify many of the effects of being a werewolf. I suggested a couple of extra runes to use."

"Ah, yes, he is talented in rune use; I would not have thought anyone could get as much out of runes as he has managed, even if some of the effects were decidedly … scatological."

"No, Albus, you always preferred to throw your power at a problem, it being considerable, and your transfigurational skills being spectacular. I prefer the quiet, subtle path, and though I resent the rumours you spread about me using demonology, I forgive that if you truly have an organisation capable of opposing Riddle. I have reason to suppose he might well have dabbled in demonology as well as necromancy and in that case, I might be your last best hope. Though if you do want me to spy, I may have to raise small demons for him, simply because you arranged for that to be my reputation. Your teenage malice came back to bite you." He gave a wolfish grin.

"I don't like that, but you are right, and I apologise for the teenage rivalry that led me to spread rumours," said Albus, stiffly. "But I suppose you would limit what you did."

"Oh, I could raise something weak and jam it into a spectacular looking pseudobody because I have the imagination to build something like that and keep it moving with the spirit inside it, which is what the trick is of demonology. Those of the fae who have little in the way of substance will do a lot to get a body, even a temporary and imaginary one. They hope always that the demonologist who raises them will lose control and then they can have his body instead. This is one reason I never have felt an urge to dabble in demonology; you have to be a nutter to want to try to make pacts with powerful and inimical beings. I'm not nice, but I've never been a nutter."

"No, I … can say that you are not insane, Tiberius. Well! I will take you to meet Argus Filch. May I observe your attempts to awaken magic in him?"

"Certainly, Albus. It won't mean a lot to you, but you are welcome to watch. If you'd paid more attention in Ancient Runes you'd be able to follow what I do, but then, you dropped it when you had enough to read ancient texts, which is all you use it for, and I left NEWTs a long way behind before I even completed my course. As I suspect Severus will."

"His understanding of hieroglyphs was certainly impressive. Summoning butterflies indeed!" Dumbledore could not refrain from smiling at the thought. "He's a genius at potion making too, according to Horace."

"Good, my family has always favoured the subtle path," grunted Tiberius. Which is why, he reflected, Eileen was such a hop out o' kin and her rebellion so unexpected and blatant, throwing her father into uncharacteristic bluntness back in disowning her. Eileen would learn to be a Prince again. And Severus already knew.

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* Most grammar schools disappeared in the 1970s but were certainly going strong in 1971 where one had to pass the 'eleven plus' exam.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"He kep' his promise, bless him!" said Argus, wonderingly. "And you was prepared to listen to him too!"

"My grandson is worth listening to," said Tiberius. "Hmm, yes, a tricky little ritual and I need to take it in two parts. First the painful part when I shall tattoo you with patterns and runes to connect to your magical core, and then the second part which is more arduous for me than for you as I chant to bring that magic to the fore. You've lost some of it, I fear, for lack of use, and you are never going to be Merlin, but we'll get you more than capable of holding your own against any ill-conditioned pups who bark at their elders and betters."

"Thank you, sir!"

Tiberius chose to cast his tattoos on Filch's back, where he might spread them wider and draw in more magic. He absently added a tattoo of a shield charm as well, which would be powered entirely by Filch's blood flowing. It would protect him while he learned counter curses on his own. And then he went to work. Argus Filch bit his lip and submitted, uncomplaining to the tattooing, and if part of him feared that it was all a cruel joke, and he would discover some slur against squibs had been drawn on his back, he had enough trust in the Marauders to trust those they trusted. And when Tiberius Prince had finished his invisible tattooing that the interfering old coot of a headmaster could not see or readily detect, he started chanting, and Argus gasped as he felt his body begin to tingle. Mrs. Norris's hair went on end, and she hissed. Unlike Petunia his magic had been stultified for so long that he began doing accidental magic almost immediately and Tiberius absently put up a protective shell around the squib. By the time he had finished he was exhausted but Filch would be able to use magic as well as most.

"I remembers what they said," said Filch, seizing the school wand he had been practising with, in hopes of needing it . "Swish and flick, _wingardium leviosa!_ " and he levitated Mrs. Norris right into his arms. She growled, hissed, lashed her tail and then forgave him and gave him a headbonk kiss right across the face.

"You'll want a wand that chooses you," said Tiberius. "But then, you'll have time over the holiday to go up to Ollivander's."

"I will that," said Filch. "I owe you a life debt."

"I was glad of the opportunity to see whether I could do it," said Tiberius. "But if you feel a debt, look out for my grandson and his friends."

"I do that anyway; I owe them as well," said Argus.

"Then look on it as my pleasure to do something for a friend of my heir," said Tiberius.

"Hello Granddad! It's not quite end of term," said Severus.

"I know; I came to sort out Mr. Filch and look at your friend Remus," said Tiberius.

Where Severus was, the Gryffindor Marauders were, even if Narcissa and Charity were more discreet, and he introduced his grandfather to his newer friends.

Tiberius shook hands solemnly all round, receiving bows and curtseys, and asked Remus' permission to draw wand on him. After a long diagnostic, he frowned.

"It will take some work and research," he declared. "Unlike Argus Filch, whose condition was not so different to Miss Evans that it caused me any serious difficulties, I will need to delve deeply into the cursed nature of the wound which made you into what you are, its heritable characteristics and the whole transfigurational matter. I have my suspicions as to the origins of lycanthropy, and I fancy it has its roots in primitive demonology, when a summoned fae was forced into the summoner's idea of a wolf, from only limited contact with real ones. This is why there are serious physical differences between werewolves and real wolves. By what means it became a disease I can only guess, but at least having an idea of how this came about will be necessary to effect a total cure."

"Yes sir; thank you for even trying, sir," said Remus.

"I may have a black reputation but I will do almost anything for my grandson's friends," said Tiberius. "He has a knack of choosing them well."

Narcissa was wearing an elf-sewn gown of deep gold velvet, the same colour as her hair, trimmed with royal blue, bringing out the accents in Narcissa's eyes. It was form fitting to the hips and then swirled like molten gold about her feet, turning her into a precious statuette of gold with ivory and lapis lazuli accents. Even the boys were impressed and Lily, Petunia and Charity clapped their hands in delight.

Petunia enjoyed doing Narcissa's hair, which she did on neutral ground in the library. Narcissa, who had taken a mirror to sort herself out if it looked drastic, gasped.

"You really do have a talent, Tuney," she said, and kissed the smaller girl on the forehead. "I'm going to knock Fabian dead."

The Marauders gave her an escort to the great hall to meet with her partner, though Narcissa privately felt they probably looked more like a goblin crime lord's body guard than a guard of honour.

Fabian was suitably impressed, and even Gideon whistled.

It may be said that Lucius Malfoy did have to go to the ball with Dolores Umbridge, and hated the fact that she gloated over the fact and cooed over him.

Tiberius made an assignation with the rest of the Marauders who were busy breaking curfew to meet him in the seventh floor corridor by the tapestry of the ballet dancing trolls. As they arrived, he grinned, and a door suddenly appeared.

"Wow!" said Sirius. "What's that?"

"The room of requirements," said Tiberius. "I wanted somewhere private to look at young Remus, and this room provides anything you want."

"Nice," said Severus. "So if you wanted somewhere to brew a potion …"

"It would provide you with a laboratory and ingredients, so long as it could obtain them from somewhere unwarded, and that generally means only common ingredients. You'll discover why when you study Gamp's exceptions, it can only manufacture non magical artefacts or ingredients. Don't expect to brew Polyjuice potion without obtaining your own boomslang skin first," he warned. "Remus, my boy, sit back on that reclining chair; I'm going to examine you with the amulet on, with it off, and with you chanting the runes on it. I don't really need your friends but I assume you wanted the support."

"Thanks, sir," said Remus, who was grateful for the support.

Tiberius examined Remus carefully; Charity had been told about him, with Narcissa on hand to obliviate her if she had seemed likely to mind, but Charity had only hugged Remus and told him she would help all she could.

Tiberius nodded.

"This is promising," he said. "There's a marked difference between having the amulet on and chanting and not wearing the amulet. This suggests that if I can devise a ritual to embed similar runes into your being, we might be able to overcome your affliction. Now how many of you others would be prepared to give some blood to aid a blood ritual to cure him?"

Seven hands went up, but Charity Burbage also asked,

"Wouldn't that be dark magic, sir?"

"Well, now, er, Cherry, wasn't it? Let us return to your basic understanding of the Dark Arts. What is it that makes a dark creature different from a dangerous creature?"

Charity looked flummoxed.

"I don't know, sir."

"What did your DADA teacher say?"

"That dark creatures were the ones that were listed in the book, sir," said Charity.

"Well! What a singularly useless teacher! What's his name? I shall go have words with him later," said Tiberius.

"He was sacked for interfering with little girls, sir," said James. "The position of DADA teacher is cursed; nobody has been able to hold the position for a year since Professor Dumbledore wouldn't give it to Voldemort."

"Is that so? Dear me. Well perhaps I should volunteer to take on the position for the next two terms, anyway," said Tiberius. "A dark creature, my children, is one which has a dark intent. A tiger will eat you if it is hungry, tear you apart if you threaten her cubs or chase you off with violence if you are on her hunting territory. A dark creature will suck out your gladness, or torture you or otherwise hurt you for fun. Remus here is a dark creature when he turns, and in that form will have no compunction about ripping apart his dearest friend. This is why the chanting is so important, as it is a form of meditation enabling him to maintain the part of him which is good and true and sane. I suspect the chanting would have some effect even without the amulet. Now, to return to your question, Charity; is my intention to cure your friend one which will cause destruction, terror, or pain with the intent of enjoying such negative things?"

"No sir; so it's not dark magic," said Charity. "Everyone says blood magic is dark magic so I was a bit scared."

"Everyone also says I'm a demonologist, which I'm not," said Tiberius. "I know how to get rid of the perishers. However, it'll work in my favour if half the upper school are scared of me," he grinned. "The ones who follow … hmm, now I wonder if we should accord Mr. Riddle the respect of reading the same books in the library as I did?"

"What do you mean, sir?" asked Severus.

"I came across a book which mentioned something called 'egophonic magic', said Tiberius. "It enables a wizard, or witch, to hear when their name is spoken, and to catch a short conversation following that, and can be set up to drain a little power from whoever speaks the name into the owner of it. I wonder if the reason he has picked a unique soubriquet is to be able to use that? I think perhaps you should be wary of naming him until you know enough to block from him. Which will require occlumensy and you are all a little young to learn that. Though I'll get you started on some techniques to help you when you are old enough," he added. "I believe he hates his real name, Riddle. Also anyone might speak of a riddle, and I think as a name, under various spellings, it is common enough in the muggle world. As is Tom. Speak of him as Tommy or Riddle only; don't combine them in case he has set up conditions to hear the name in combination."

"It sounds a good precaution," said Severus.

"I'd rather suggest paranoia than risk you giving away plans when you are old enough to really target Death Eaters," said Tiberius. He looked suddenly grave.

"I want you children to trust me, no matter what you hear," he said. "Will you do so?"

"Why, are you planning on joining the Death Eaters to get rid of them?" asked Severus.

Tiberius twitched.

"The joys of having an unnaturally clever grandson," he said. "Well! We shall certainly start occlumensy classes with the lot of you next term. I trust you to keep a secret – you've kept Remus' secret- but if anyone used legilimensy on any of you, I'd rather not be betrayed by accident. I would prefer the lot of you to be older, but the recruiting does go on in school and I believe Dumbledore is too arrogant to see what's going on under his own nose, and Horace Slughorn too stupid. At least as an ex Slytherin I can poke around in Slytherin House, and see if I can extract any brats from the consequences of their own folly, as you bunch have done with young Avery. I'll make a pet of the Slytherin, you know, and come down hard on the rest of you; make that I'm disappointed in my Grandson's choice of house, and a scion of the Noble and Ancient Family Black for that matter. But the harder I am on you Marauders, know that I am testing and forging you for surpassing the rest."

Severus nodded.

"It's a way we can start to make a difference," he said. "And you can push those who need rescuing towards us, and Dave Greengrasse, who's okay."

Tiberius nodded.

"And totally reprehensible of me to involve you lot at all, but I can't easily operate as a spy without you all grumbling about me," he said. "And at least if I'm doing the spying, Dumbledore can't actively involve any of you to do it for him."

"Surely he wouldn't do that?" asked Lily.

"Lily, do you think he accepted a werewolf into his school purely in order to promote tolerance? There are other juvenile werewolves whom he has not invited into the school, and the wolflings, the offspring of werewolves who have fewer taints unless both parents are werewolves. He chose the son of two Gryffindors of good standing, full of courage and duty. And expected the said werewolf to be isolated because he dared not make friends, and to have only himself to turn to. Oh, for the greater good, of course," he added sarcastically. "He didn't quite admit it but he didn't deny it when I taxed him with it. I was at school with Albus Dumbledore and we did not get on. He set Eileen against me, I'm sure," he added. "And I trust him to run a war against Riddle, but I don't trust him not to expend whatever pawns he feels necessary. Including children. I am sorry, Remus, to destroy your faith in his kindness."

"I … I did ask him if there were others in a similar situation, and he said that I was to … prove that it was possible. I … I do not want to be used!" His eyes went amber in anger.

"And you will not be. I was chuckling at his consternation that all your friends knew and were still friends with you, and yet you had kept your promise not to tell anyone. Now, any questions?"

"I expect we'll come up with a heap over Yule, sir," said Sirius.

"Then you can save them for next term," said Tiberius. "I am going to go and tell Dumbledore that he needs a teacher of the Dark Arts. Defence against them, of course."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Eileen embraced Severus when he got home, having travelled in Tiberius' carriage. Severus thought she looked younger.

"Mum, you've got so pretty!" he blurted out.

Tears filled her eyes.

"Oh, Sev! I am sorry I let you get caught in spells sometimes. I don't know what I was thinking of; I couldn't think all the time, just trying to get some retaliation in first. How you've grown!"

"It's all right, mum," Severus was uncomfortable with his mother's tears. Crying because his father had beaten her, he could understand. This was weird. "I'm sorry if I upset you."

"You didn't," she hugged him fiercely. "I … I am glad to be pretty for my boy. I haven't been any sort of mother. I've realised that since your grandfather took me away from Tobias. I wasn't good to you at all, and I didn't protect you from him. Can you forgive me?"

"Yeah, sure," said Severus. "When I'm grown I'm going to knock his block off. And do it without magic too. When I've learned enough from granddad."

"He was so sweet when I first knew him," sighed Eileen. "Protective. And when he first learned about magic, he was fine with it. It was when he found out magic could hex people that he got mad, and when he was shouting, you did your first accidental magic and electrocuted him."

"So it's my fault he beat on us?"

"No! No it's his fault that he didn't accept that magic is like any tool, it can do good or bad, and that little kids protect themselves in the only way their instinct knows how. And I managed to stop him beating you for it, because that might have made you stop using magic, and I thought he'd understood. But it was then he started drinking. He hadn't realised how different we are, and he didn't want to know. It's not your fault. It's not even my fault. It's his problem and he can't handle it."

Severus thought about this.

"If he knew about the wizarding world when you got married, he has no excuse for getting mad about it later," he said. "And I know he bets on Quidditch."

"It started when I cast a grooming charm on him when he was going to work," said Eileen. "It wasn't even a hex, but he went ballistic that I could do something to him without his permission or being able to stop it. And I said something like 'oh come on, it's only a grooming charm, it's not like I was hexing your knees backwards,' and he grabbed me and shook me and demanded to know if that was possible. And you'd have thought that as every Quidditch match starts with the rules, including no jinxing, he'd have figured it out. Unfortunately, he seemed to be smart but wasn't as clever as either of us thought," she sighed. "And then it all just got out of hand."

Severus nodded.

It wasn't his fault. He didn't have to apologise. He didn't have to be afraid. He was a Prince, and his grandfather valued him, and so did his friends, and …

"Did you say sorry to Tessi, Mum?" he asked.

She flushed.

"Yes," she said, in a low voice. "I had some … friends … at school who didn't think you ought to be courteous to your elves. I … I wanted to be like them. People like Walburga Black, who was a prefect."

"Yuk, she's my mate Sirius' mum and he says she's awful," said Severus.

"She was certainly forceful," said Eileen.

"You weren't at school with a Tom Riddle, were you?" asked Severus.

"No, not that I know. What about him?"

"Oh, nothing much, I just heard of him as an old boy," said Severus. Mum might want to be a proper mum but she needed protecting from some things.

Christmas was like everything Severus had always imagined Christmas ought to be, the way it was in muggle story books, with gifts under a tree, having been to Diagon Alley to buy his own Christmas gifts for his family and friends. For his grandfather he had found a second hand book called 'Rune and Ritual' which was missing its covers but it was heavily annotated. Severus hoped the notes of another wizard might prove helpful, even if Tiberius already had a copy. For his mother and for Mrs. Evans he had bought silk scarves enchanted to change shade to either blend with, or contrast to, any costume it was worn with, on command. For Mr. Evans he bought a quill which wrote to dictation, having checked that it was guaranteed to work for a muggle too. He had made gifts for Petunia and Lily, brooches with the protection charm carved onto the stones, rose quartz for Petunia and turquoise for Lily. Lily knew he had to give Petunia as good a gift as he gave her.

Sirius was the boy who had everything, and so was James. Severus hesitated, and then made his way to a muggle joke shop to buy them both a selection of jokes and tricks that neither would have seen before. For Charity and Narcissa, he chose another scarf each, because he couldn't think of anything else and girls were difficult. He knew what Peter wanted was a wizarding chess set, because he could never afford one, and he was going shares with Sirius and James to buy the boy a really nice set, having already pooled their resources to that end. And for Remus, who was also not well off, Severus bought a set of books about Ancient Runes he knew Remus coveted.

And then he had his own gifts on Christmas day. A broom from his grandfather, and a set of practice balls from his mother, a set of muggle story books from all the Evans family, by Malcolm Saville, about a gang of kids called the Lone Piners who solved mysteries, a collection of semi-precious stones from James, for carving, a travelling potioneer's kit from Sirius, a pack of muggle cards from Remus and the note 'at least you can't argue with these ones' and sweets from Peter. Charity had knitted him a scarf, and Severus knew she had done the same for the other boys, and Narcissa had sent him some basic potioneering ingredients. Probably she had put her head together with her cousin.

"Wow," said Severus. "I never knew people could have so many presents all at once."

Eileen started crying again and Tiberius tapped her on the forearm.

"People give what they can," he said, gruffly. "And may I say you managed to find the perfect gift for the man who has almost everything; I don't actually have a copy of this book, and the notes in the margins make it even more valuable."

"I hoped they would be of use, even if you did have it," said Severus. "I didn't understand a word of it, so I knew it was advanced enough for you."

Tiberius laughed.

"It is indeed," he said. "It will be a few years before you can read it readily. And I'll want to check there are no traps in the notes."

"What do you mean?" asked Severus.

"Some wizards know the skill to place traps in things they write," Tiberius explained. "Anything from an implanted compulsion to actually casting a spell. Be careful when reading handwritten notes, my boy! Especially in books in the restricted part of the library."

"I shall," said Severus. "Though you need a note from a Professor to get those out, and I'm not sure how old you have to be."

"Bear in mind that I will be a professor," said Tiberius. "Though I'll only send you to study specific texts, not to browse."

"That could be useful," said Severus, happily.

Much as Severus enjoyed his holiday, he was glad to be going back to school for the new term. Tiberius had apparated back and forth for a few days before the end of the holidays to settle in to his new quarters, and then involved Severus in a simple chant as he set up a concealed gate between Prince Mansion and the quarters of the DADA professor. It was hidden by a password, _Primus inter pares._ It was their secret, and only to be shared with other Marauders in emergency.

Tiberius duly saw Severus and the Evans girls to the train before apparating directly to the school himself. Severus and the girls went looking for their friends and were waved at by Sirius Black. He and Narcissa had bagsed a compartment, and they were rapidly joined by all their friends.

"I didn't have any kit stolen from my trunk on the way home, thanks to your rune, Sev," said Charity Burbage, happily. "It is nice to have protections against being ragged."

"I call it bullying myself," said James. "No it isn't like holding Iggy Weasley's prep out of reach and screwing it up and tossing it like a quaffle to Sirius, because we only played with it for a couple of minutes and I did smoothing charms on it and I cast a handwriting clarity charm on it for him, so don't look at me like that, you girls."

"You did give it back in better condition than you took it, so yes, I agree," said Lily.

"And it was quite funny because Iggy had been awfully rude again about us using etiquette," said Petunia. "He doesn't even have any manners."

"And Merlin help me, I'm going to be related to him," said Narcissa. "It's all sorted; I'm going to enter a formal betrothal with Fabian Prewett after my OWLs, and the only fly in the ointment is my sister-in-law elect, Fabe's sister Molly, who is the bossiest moo in creation, hates Slytherin, and after all her holier-than-thou as a prefect only went and eloped with Arthur Weasley who is some kind of cousin to Ignatius."

"Oh well, you don't have to see an in-law too often," said Sirius.

"And it's a minor point next to marrying Malfoy," said Narcissa. "After the pater turned down the betrothal, do you know what old man Abraxus suggested?"

"Not unless you tell us, Cissy-delicious," said Sirius.

He spent several minutes chasing his ears around the carriage, where they fluttered in a futile attempt to escape.

"Don't call me that," said Narcissa.

"No, mighty one," said Sirius, having re-attached his ears successfully. Narcissa decided to merely roll her eyes at that epithet.

"We want to know what old man Abraxus suggested even if Sirius is in one of those moods," said Severus.

"He wrote to my father suggesting that if I did not like his son, I might consider marriage to him, as he was strongly considering disowning Lucius, and would need another heir."

"Cheeky old perv!" said Severus. "And hasn't it crossed his mind that even if you were geriatric enough not to find that disgusting that Lucius is going to try to kill any sibling that might replace him?"

"It's less his age as the fact that he has sideburns and is more starchy than even my family," said Narcissa. "By the time I'm middle aged he'd still be middle aged, and Malfoys tend to be long lived, but I don't think he's even passably good looking and I really don't want to be in a family with Lucius anyway. And I like Fabian, and my parents accept that just fine."

"Well that's good," said Severus. "What are we going to do to prank the school this term?"

"I came across a recipe for a babbling potion," said Sirius. "If we brewed enough we could spike the pumpkin juice with it, and if we only pretend to drink it we can listen to all the babbling other people are doing and point and giggle."

"Sounds good," said James. Severus nodded.

"We need to get it into the jugs of pumpkin juice and I don't suppose the elves will help twice."

"You need a switching charm," said Narcissa, "which isn't a charm, it's a transfiguration, but the names are sometimes pretty poor. It goes like this …"

If anyone suggested to eight first years that they should spend their journey practising school work they would have chorused indignation. When a perfectly good schoolwork spell could also be used for mischief, this was a different matter. And Narcissa drilled them ruthlessly until even Peter could perform a switching spell better, had he known it, than many OWL students. They were quite surprised when the train pulled into the station, and they had to switch back the right eyebrows to the right foreheads, and the right shoes back to the right feet.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

"Welcome back, children, I hope you all had a good Christmas," said Dumbledore. "I would like you to welcome our new DADA teacher, Mr. Tiberius Prince, who has stepped in after the, er, unfortunate loss of Mr. Povey." He beamed as there was polite applause. "Mr Prince was a well known ritual sorcerer in his day, and has forgotten more than most people ever learn about demonology."

Tiberius smiled a grim smile and rose.

"And I will not answer any questions about either demonology or necromancy so don't even try asking," he said. "I don't intend to have to put right the idiocies of those with more curiosity than sense raising demons and losing control of them. As if getting rid of demons wasn't enough of a bore, I get so sick of mailing the remains of those who try back to their parents."

There was a long silence.

"Er, yes, quite so," said Dumbledore. "I'm sure you'll all learn a lot from Mr. Prince without needing to dabble in forbidden arts, and in the meantime, please enjoy the feast!"

"Lovely, we get told gruesome things about mailing the remains of students back to their parents and then get told to enjoy the feast?" grumbled Ignatius Weasley.

"Dry up, Weasley, if you don't dabble in forbidden arts you won't get mailed back to your parents, will you?" said Severus. "Never known your voracious appetite to be attenuated by anything yet, don't they feed you at home? Or is it a question of having so few manners that you have to grab as grab can, and you can't rid yourself of the habit in civilised surroundings?"

Weasley changed colour several times; he came from a large family where in fact the table rule was very much grab as grab can.

"You're related to that Professor Prince and he's a dark wizard," he said.

"I am related to him and I'd like to know what makes you call him a dark wizard," said Severus.

"Well if he knows about demonology and necromancy he must be."

Severus laughed.

"What a silly little boy you are! Why, Professor Dumbledore knows about demonology and necromancy; knowing and practising are two different things. You rather need to know about things like that to get rid of the demons or undead the idiots who raise such things have managed to produce."

"It's true," said Fabian Prewett, "I will have to learn both when I go for auror training."

"Yeah, but you're dating a filthy Slytherin, Prewett," said Weasley.

Fabian's eyes became flat and unfriendly. So did those of the Marauders but they left it to the prefect.

"For your information, Weasley," said Fabian, "Miss Black washes without needing to be told, unlike a certain Ignatius Weasley who skimps his morning wash and had to be sent out of breakfast twice last term for having dirty hands and a tide mark on his neck. Who does that make 'filthy'?"

No small boy is a friend to soap and water, but Weasley was particularly fond of his bed and usually fell out of bed barely in time to dress for breakfast without time for such niceties as washing and cleaning his teeth. The Marauders, Frank and Alice had the advantage of early rising to run, and leaving enough time to shower before changing for breakfast. This public dissection of Ignatius Weasley's matutinal habits turned the boy's face as red as his hair, but he yelled,

"You know what I mean! She's Slytherin so she's evil!"

"Mr. Weasley." Madam McGonagall used a sonorous spell from the staff table. "For yon display of both bad manners in yelling like a guttersnipe, and for yer unwarranted comments on members o' ither houses, ye'll be serving a detention wi' Mr. Filch for an hour ivery nicht for the next week."

Weasley glared at Prewett.

"Now look what you've done," he growled.

"I rather think, Weasley, it was you yelling, and you expressing the sort of opinion about my girlfriend that would have me taking you behind the broomsheds to tan your arse if you were not already in trouble. Because you are my cousin in marriage so I would feel that superseded the concept that to do so would be outside my dignity as a prefect. If you ever say anything about my girlfriend again, however, you may consider the date behind the broomsheds to be resumed," said Fabian, quietly.

"Hear hear," said Gideon. "Even I reckon Narcissa Black is all right."

Weasley glowered.

"Minerva," said Tiberius, "May I make a suggestion? In the spirit of interhouse co-operation, perhaps anyone who denigrates a particular House should spend a week having moved into that House. With of course the expectation that the members of the House should be on their best behaviour to show the idiot up."

"I'm not sure I'd trust all the Slytherin to behave, tae be honest, Tiberius," said McGonagall.

"Oh Horace might not be able to keep them in line, but I wager I could," said Tiberius. "The time is coming when we will need interhouse co-operation. And weeding out those who wish to follow the Riddlemaster might not come amiss."

"Weel … it's tae be considered. I'll aye talk tae Horace, Pomona and Filius aboot the idea."

Lucius Malfoy was the one on whom the sentence of this punishment first fell, since the other House Heads thought it an excellent way of eroding misunderstandings.

"Though I wonder how many of them will be able to enter Ravenclaw Tower through the riddling knocker," Filius squeaked, in concern.

"They'll do it the same way your dimmer members manage, by sneaking in with a crowd with someone who can do it," said Pomona, with more truth than tact.

The announcement was made, and it was perhaps unfortunate that Lucius chose to try to hex Narcissa for going out with a 'stupid Gryffindor' without checking who was behind him.

This happened to be Filius Flitwick, who sentenced the boy to a week in Gryffindor Tower in great glee.

The Gryffindor common room were not delighted. They stared in horror.

"Well met and welcome to Griffindor House, scion of House Malfoy," Gideon managed. "Hereafter in Griffindor Tower, you will find that we act as a familial house and do not demand proper usage amongst ourselves. We hope you will settle down here. Nobody," he glared at Weasley and a couple of other older Gryffindors, "Will start anything. However if you start anything, Family Gryffindor will finish it."

"How touching," sneered Lucius.

The rule laid down by Madam McGonagall was that everyone was to be nice to any sentenced to her house, and to give them no excuse to complain. She had threatened that anyone who contravened this would spend not one, but two weeks in Slytherin. This was enough to make her hotter heads lie low.

"You'd better explain the rules of your house to me," said Lucius, insolently. "Like whether you truly treat mudbloods as equals, and how I am expected to address them."

"We treat all birth status as equal," said Gideon. "We object to swearing and dirty words like mudblood, but since your family upbringing is deprived and uncivilised and it is apparent that your father considers the language of the gutter suitable to send in a howler to you, we recognise that you have not learned civilised forms of address. If you want etiquette classes, my twin and I have been running them for those who need them. If you do not wish to take advantage of the same, you must take the consequences, as all do, if using inappropriate language."

"How dare you! I've learned all the correct usages!"

"Really? Then perhaps you will oblige us by using them. Using filthy language in front of girls is unacceptable. Next time it happens, the house punishment is a mouthful of soap."

Lucius gave a nasty laugh.

"I wager Weasley has had more soap in his mouth than on his body."

Gideon shrugged.

"That's our business as prefects and his," he said. It was true, but it was not something to confirm to Malfoy.

"So am I supposed to address _muggleborn_ as equals?"

"Naturally; there is no familial rank in Gryffindor Tower, only rank as given to prefects."

"Naturally, I shall endeavour to remember."

"Good. Your kit is being moved by house elves, and your robes will temporarily show a new badge of Slytherdor."

Lucius determined to lay low and say nuffin', not that he had read Br'er Rabbit.

The Marauders went out of their way to be polite and helpful to Lucius. They disliked him enough that heaping coals on his head seemed funny to them.

"What are you sucking up to Malfoy for?" demanded Weasley. "He doesn't like any of you."

"Weasley," said Severus, "Why don't you go and get down the big book of Phrase and Fable from the common room library and look up the phrase 'heaping coals on the head' and see if that penetrates the thickness of your skull, if there's any space inside it for your brains."

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" said Weasley.

"No, Weasley, I know I'm so clever," said Severus. "Malfoy isn't stupid. He knows we can't stand him but that we have the self-discipline to treat him with courtesy, and that means he also knows we have more self-discipline than his gang, who wouldn't manage to do the same thing. Which means he knows that the recruits his dark lord is going to be getting are of inferior quality to those who will oppose them."

"I didn't get any of that," said Weasley.

"No, and that's why you'll never amount to much, you idiot," said Severus. "Just assume it's not out of friendship for Malfoy that we do as we do."

"I don't understand you Marauders at all," grumbled Weasley.

"And that's one reason we didn't invite you to join us," said Peter. "We need people who can manage at least limited understanding."

"Harsh, but true," said James.

As the Marauders routinely stood at the top of the class, even if only because Lily, Petunia and Severus nagged Sirius and James and coached Peter, there was very little Ignatius Weasley could say to this.

"You ought to get on really well with Malfoy, Weasley, you're just like him," said James. "Arrogant, lose your rag easily, blood snobbish in your own peculiar way, self-opinionated and totally intolerant of the opinions of others. A match made in heaven; you should get betrothed to him."

Weasley went as red as his hair again.

It didn't help that Frank Longbottom and Alice Oakby laughed.

"James has a point there, Iggy," said Frank. "I'm afraid he has your number!"

"I – AM – NOT – AT – ALL – LIKE – MALFOY!" screeched Ignatius Weasley.

"You come jolly close," said Severus. "James is right, you're as much of an intolerant prat as he is."

"I'm not!" Weasley was close to tears.

Mandy Hubble giggled.

"I happen to dislike what you dislike too, Iggy, so I don't care," she said.

"You know, he has a point, though it might have been kinder to wait until the king cobra was returned to his hole in the dungeons," said Jean Mordaunt.

Weasley stared aghast, then he turned and plunged out of the common room.

"What went on there?" Fabian asked sharply, coming over to the first years.

"I told him how like Malfoy he is, and nobody could dispute it," said James.

"Harsh," said Fabian. "Anyone a good enough friend of Weasley to go after him?"

There were a number of guilty shuffles.

"I'll go," said Frank. "He wouldn't thank any of the Marauders for going, even Remus who is the gentle one."

"He'd hurt Remus anyway," said Severus.

"More than likely," said Frank.

Weasley was back in school by the next meal but he was unwontedly subdued. Frank leaned over to James.

"You and Sirius let it alone now and don't rag him further, you hear? He's had a lot to think about and if you don't push any further he might take it to heart. If you rag him, I reckon he might just be worse, out of spite."

"Okay, mate," said James, equably. "Thing is, I can see where he's coming from, but I've got a braincell or two to rub together, and I understand a bit more about the etiquette lark and how to use it, rather than just being dead against it. And that's what this is really about, us using polite addresses and Weasley not knowing them. It's one thing to reject custom when you know it, but something else to want to reject it but not having the option of discarding what you don't know."

"That was pretty profound, James," said Severus.

James flushed, slightly, pleased. It was nice to impress the clever and sarcastic de facto leader of the group.

"Yes, I reckon you're on to something," said Lily.

"Maybe we should be nicer to Weasley," said Petunia.

"Not too nice," said James. Petunia giggled.

"You don't have to be jealous of him, James," she said.

"I wouldn't be," said James. "I have no need, do I?"

"Of course not," said Petunia. "But you so are right, that he can't reject what he doesn't know, so he gets all uppity about not wanting to know. Sort of like Communists," she added vaguely.

"What?" James asked.

"Muggle politics; really you don't want to know, it's too complex for me and I'm not sure Tuney knows a lot more than me either," said Severus.

Petunia giggled.

"No, it makes my head ache," she said.

"Oh, politics," said James.

"Politics can be interesting, actually," said Sirius. "I had some really good talks with my dad over the hols. I learned a lot about how the wizarding world works, and I say, did you know how many hats the headmaster is wearing?"

"He's only wearing one," said Petunia, peering.

"Not literally! Hats as in jobs," said Sirius.

"Headmaster … Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards … Chief Warlock of the Wizgamot … Order of Merlin first class … head of the Order of the Phoenix, though that one is supposed to be secret," said Severus.

"Yeah, and I guess your granddad feels the same way about all that power as my dad," said Sirius.

"Pretty much, I reckon," said Severus. "And if he isn't above manipulating people, we need to watch our step."

"He's against Riddle, which means he's an ally," said Sirius. "But one to be wary about. I told my dad what Narcissa said about him being a bastard half-blood, Riddle that is, and my dad got angry, and asked me if I was sure, and I said yes. Seems he was a few years below Riddle at school and just about worshipped him. I said he could ask your granddad, but that Narcissa had got it from the Lestrange brothers whose father was in his class."

"And did he believe you?"

"I think so. My dad's quite old for a father, he was thirty one when I was born. I think he was hoping to avoid marrying mother. So he's old enough to actually have known Riddle, without being too old like Mr. Prince."

"Useful," said Severus. "If he can be convinced that Riddle is an upstart blood liar, that might be enough. Shows that honesty is the best policy."

"Yeah, I said there's nothing wrong with half-bloods so long as they don't lie, and he agreed."

"Well! A potential ally, and I'm glad you had a better holiday than you expected."

"I have to say I enjoyed digging the dirt on people," grinned Sirius. "Maybe I'll be a newspaper reporter instead of an auror."

"Yeah, but if I was you, I'd get your dad to finance a new newspaper that has facts in; the Prophet is a rag," said James.

"Good idea!" said Sirius.


	18. Chapter 18

_Thank you, Guest, I have tried to think through every change. I wrote it as a whimsy when I was unwell but I'm now getting to the point where I have been seriously thinking of extending it to a series, which will be easier than 'Narcissa Malfoy's twins' which was equally a foray into fun but is largely complete... but the end of this year will leave a lot of loose ends. I couldn't resist using the Hubbles [drawn from 'The Worst Witch' series by Jill Murphy, whence also comes Con Hardbroom, whose appearance in this series has been requested. I'm always very equivocal about Dumbledore, but he does have his darker manipulative side which can be pretty sinister.]  
_

 **Chapter 18**

The Marauders were all looking forward to their first DADA class with Mr. Prince. They might actually learn something!

"The dark arts," said Tiberius Prince to his first year class of Gryffindors and Slytherin, "are many headed and mutable. They are ever-changing and dangerous because to fight them one has to be as adaptable as they are. And they are not always easy to recognise. Who can define the dark arts for me? Miss Evans?"

"The dark arts are defined by an intent to cause harm," said Lily.

"Very good, five points to Gryffindor. And intent to cause harm can take many faces. Is the tickling charm a dark art? Mr. Mulciber?"

"No, sir, of course not," said Mulciber, scornfully.

"Oh? You say 'of course not', but there are very few spells which cannot be twisted to darkness. Supposing I had given someone diuretic potions and made them drink a lot, and then cast the tickling charm? Many people would pee themselves, which is a deliberate humiliation. Deliberate humiliation is dark. Suppose the tickling charm were aimed only at the private parts. That is abuse and violation, and decidedly dark. What if a child were in pain from being hurt and the tickling charm was used to make it seem that they were happy and laughing, to prevent a parent or guardian being accused of abuse? What, Mr. Mulciber, if I held the tickling charm on you for hour after hour after hour, even day after day? Would you then be so convinced it was not dark?"

Mulciber flushed, but there was an eagerness in his eyes that showed he wanted to try this. Tiberius made a mental note of this.

"No sir, I see that it could be made dark," said Mulciber.

"As Miss Evans says, the dark arts reflect intent," said Tiberius. "I think that cheering charms are exempt, but I suspect that to a sufficiently warped imagination, most other innocuous spells could be twisted to be dark. Now, will someone define dark creatures for me? Mr. Avery?"

"Those that mean you harm?" said Avery.

"Very good, five points to Slytherin," said Tiberius. "A dangerous creature only wants to be left alone, and will attack you only if you represent a threat to it, whether by threatening its young or its territory or its food supply, or if you happen to be delicious and that animal is hungry. A dark creature will attack you for the sheer pleasure of it – from the creature's perspective, that is. Of course you are just as dead if you have been devoured by a tiger as if you have been smothered by a lethifold, but most dangerous creatures can be confunded to go away and leave you alone. Dark creatures often need quite specific counters. You may take down your homework for this lesson, which is to pick three dark creatures from your text book, briefly describe them, and suggest a counter or counters to them. I will not require you to know how to produce the counters at this early stage, merely to know what you are working towards. Mr. Prince?"

"Isn't the counter to the lethifold the same as for a dementor, sir, a patronus?"

"Yes, five points to Gryffindor. I don't suppose any of you will manage a patronus of any kind at your age. Mr. Potter?"

"I can kind of manage a patronus, yes, I can Mulciber and if you scoff I'll …."

"You will do _nothing_ Mr. Potter. Show me your patronus."

James managed something white and wispy.

"I worked on it over the hols," he said. "I don't like dementors."

"They aren't on anyone's Christmas card list so far as I know," said Tiberius. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Can anyone else match that? No? well early days. Well done Mr. Potter."

James glowed; he liked receiving praise, and his own set murmured their own congratulations. All of them had been trying to get a patronus since Fabian Prewett had explained about them, but he was the first to succeed. Severus swore he would not remain beaten for long! Still, Severus reflected, it was good for James to shine, as he also did on a broom, because he could be a bit sulky if not receiving attention.

Malfoy kept his head down. He had heard the comparisons between him and the Weasley child, and he didn't like it any more than Ignatius Weasley had. How dare they compare him to that ignorant peasant, because peasants the Weasleys surely were, even if they were pure blooded. He looked forward to DADA classes with someone who knew something of summoning, even if Professor Prince had declared he would not answer questions on demonology or necromancy. That was just what he said in public, of course. Naturally he had taken the job in a school to gain disciples since his grandson, or whatever Prince might be, was a namby-pamby Gryffindor.

Tiberius kept his introduction very similar for all the classes, and also checked whether they could define the dark arts and dark creatures. Some of the DADA teachers had been better than others, and the knowledge was distinctly spotty. However since the OWL class, which included Lucius, was distinctly uncertain, Tiberius decided that they needed more work.

In answer to his question about what constituted the dark arts, he discovered that most of the class believed this to be the Unforgivable curses.

"Demonology," said Lucius.

"Demonology is a small portion of the rest of the dark arts, yes, five points to Slytherin," said Tiberius. "At least if one assumes the summoning of the unseelie fae and jamming them into pseudo bodies, or indeed summoning lesser forms such as Dementors."

"Dementors are lesser forms?" Lucius was taken aback.

"Oh yes, some of the weaker great form spirits," said Tiberius. "Any half competent wizard or witch of sixteen could summon and control a dementor and a great number of half competent witches and wizards at Durmstrang do so, since they study the dark arts, not the defences against them. And there are occasional fatal accidents there when they lose control of their dementors and receive the kiss from irritable spirits. Because they don't actually teach how to control their dementors by means other than willpower. Because sometimes willpower is not enough, or wavers before the feelings of despair engendered by dementors. If you've never got up close and personal with them, nothing prepares you for the way they bring up your worst memory, even in the summoner, and this is why the teaching of a patronus should always precede any exposure to them. Mr. Malfoy, I believe you managed to control two, which is a remarkable feat of will, but I imagine it was hard."

The rest of the class turned to stare at Lucius.

"So it was you who set them on Gryffindor Tower, was it?" demanded Edgar Bones.

"They got away from me," Lucius lied smoothly. "I wanted to see if I could raise them."

"And did you find them less easy to deal with than you had imagined?" asked Tiberius, fixing a steely gaze on the boy.

Lucius actually flushed.

"Yes." He said shortly, then added, "The feelings of despair make controlling them very hard. I meant to dismiss them but I guess I didn't do it properly and they went hunting."

"I see," said Tiberius. Lucius squirmed. He had a feeling that Tiberius did see, only too well. "Then you will be delighted to know that this term's project will be to learn to use a patronus, which is also the only known defence against a lethifold. A patronus may be of some use against great form spirits, especially in a massed defence against them. And you want defences against those, since what they can do make the dementor's kiss look merciful."

"Like what?" asked Lucius. He was the only one who was actually interested. Tiberius raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it can be as mutable as the fae themselves, who are all individuals, but I have to say I was cured of being interested in raising demons when the master I sought for lessons decided to show off. He summoned four demons to set on some enemy, but one of those who opposed him managed to use simple first year spells, the levitation charm on a wet sponge, to wipe out some of the demon master's protective circle. You don't need such for mere dementors of course, but these were real demons, not pansy little things like dementors. And when the circle went down, the demons turned preferentially on the man who had summoned them. Headed off in four different directions with a limb each. It was horribly slow. I didn't wait to see the end; I apparated out of there, covered my tracks and used every kind of transport I could, including muggle railways, to hide my aura amongst a lot of people, and was very pleased to have escaped with my skin intact. I was a foolish teenager. And it's why I won't be answering specific questions on the subject. You have to be a barking madman to mess with great form spirits."

The class were looking, unsurprisingly, rather sick, even Malfoy.

"You'd need something more permanent than chalk, I guess," said Lucius.

"Yes, but all media have some degree of risk," said Tiberius. "Casting the circle is a part of the ritual so you have to get the last bit of it up fast. Carving it on a stone is not enough, though you can use an inner circle to give you a chance to survive. Like I said, you'd have to be a barking madman. Of course, many dark wizards are barking madmen, but that's the nature of letting the dark arts rule you."

"Do you think Voldemort is a barking madman?" asked Lucius, daringly.

"I don't know, but his measure of success suggests he has more sanity than most," said Tiberius. "Gellert Grindelwald was eminently sane. A sane dark wizard is by far and away more dangerous than the usual idiots who let dark magic rule them. Because most people who feel a need to use dark magic are looking for a way to be one up and can anyone tell me why that makes them losers?"

"I can't see that it does so, one takes what advantages one can, surely?" said Lucius.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, perhaps you will think about what sort of person wants to be one up?" said Tiberius. Malfoy frowned, plainly puzzled.

"Oh, I get it, sir," said Narcissa. "Only someone who feels one down has to find an extra way to be one up."

"Excellent, Miss Black, and ten points to Slytherin for working it out. Anyone who is already any good at their craft doesn't need a short cut. The dangerous kind of wizard – or witch – is the one who is excellent at their craft, knows they are already one up, and studies the dark arts out of academic interest as an adjunct to their other studies."

"So unless one is already good, one is a loser for wanting to learn about the dark arts?" asked Lucius.

"Precisely, Mr. Malfoy. It is the same as being a bully, for a bully picks on those who are weaklings who cannot fight back because he is too pathetic to mix with those as strong as himself. The would-be dark wizard seeks to bully, by embarking on the study of the dark arts before ensuring that one is strong in all other fields. In doing so, one opens oneself to being more controlled by them than controlling them."

"Like my sister, Bellatrix, who is quite insane in her enjoyment of causing pain to others," said Narcissa.

"Indeed, Miss Black, if she has permitted herself to take pleasure in harming others. Those dark wizards who use such spells purely as a matter of expedient and neither enjoy nor are repelled by their actions are the only ones worth fearing. And in this kind of case one might defeat normal, dark-controlled dark wizards by taunting them until they lose their temper and therefore lose their judgement. This is something of a sidetrack, however, a subject I had planned to address later in the term," Tiberius lied smoothly, "But as we have addressed it now, it gets a lot out to clear the air. I want you all to read up on page 58 about what a patronus is, and how to achieve it, and your homework, which is for your own satisfaction only and to make the next class easier, is to list the things that make you happy. As a matter of interest, it is said by some that a dark wizard cannot make a patronus since the only things that make him happy are negative emotions over causing pain. However, few people are truly dark unless they have been possessed by the dark arts themselves. Dismissed!"

Lucius Malfoy was thinking furiously. He loathed and feared Bellatrix Black. He did not want to be a loser. And what he had heard of Voldemort suggested that the dark wizard did delight in causing pain. Serving someone as crazy as Bellatrix but more powerful was suddenly not such a good idea. Lucius had not yet been to any Death Eater Meetings, but had planned to go with Rodolphus Lestrange, along with Rabastan. Rabastan was sitting with his mouth half open and plainly had not understood a word. Lucius sneered. He didn't need Voldemort to do his thinking for him, like the Lestranges, he already knew that the Malfoys should be in charge if anyone was.

Tiberius had no liking for the Malfoy boy but perhaps, he thought, the brat was clever enough to at least be saved from the snares of Tom Riddle. There was no hope for either Lestrange, whether in this OWL class or for the older boy in the NEWT class. Neither was very clever and for either to assimilate ideas outside of what they had been told to think by their father was rather like expecting a fish to play quidditch.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

" _Dear and esteemed father._

 _Our new DADA teacher is of the same opinion as yourself, that dark wizards are losers. He made several cogent arguments as to why, and now I understand what you meant. Your howler to me earlier this year is now making more sense to me, as I was listening to the wrong sorts of people. I do not have to use dark magic to be one up, since I am a Malfoy and therefore inherently superior to any other wizard alive in the world._

 _I had half considered permitting Rabastan Lestrange to introduce me to his Dark Lord, but I am going to eschew that dubious pleasure._

 _I am glad I am not going to be associated in marriage with the Black family; they are all insane. Bellatrix more obviously than her sisters, but Andromeda and Narcissa appear to be mudblood lovers. However, perhaps we should pretend more tolerance, in order to be able to work beside the bleeding heart liberals in the overthrow of the contumelious upstart, Voldemort. Mr. Prince did not come out and say that Voldemort is also insane but the inference was clear enough to me. He has also convinced me why it is a very bad idea to dabble in demonology. You may want to speak with him, however, and offer him the Malfoy library to visit, since I have gained some clue that Voldemort dabbles in necromancy, and may have made himself into some species of minded undead. Rabastan boasted once that his body may be defeated but he can never die, which sounds rather like a spirit binding of some sort to me._

 _I have been sentenced to a week in Gryffindor House for shooting off my mouth – and yes, I am very sorry about it – but amazingly they have been largely civil to me, apart from one of the numerous brats of the fecund Weasel clan and what shamed me was hearing his class mates tell him that he was like me. I did not appreciate that. I will attempt to curb my temper. Oh yes, and apparently Mr. Prince has managed to cure old Filch of being a squib; I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw him casting cleaning spells! Father, if you want to consider standing for office, it might be as well to invest money in this cure, and have squibs, and families who have them, left in your gratitude. It might also be worth tracing the descendants of squibs of former times and seeing if it works on them too._

 _You see, I am considering politics and the good of the family,_

 _Your dutiful son,_

 _Lucius,_

 _Scion of Family Malfoy."_

" _My dear son,_

 _I am pleased that you have taken your head out of your arse to contemplate the realities of life. You are correct; one does not have to like mudbloods or half-bloods to make use of them. Plenty of old families, even those claiming to be lighter than light, are chary of upstarts, but if you ask me, controlling the upstarts is better than banning them from school, when they might band together and cause trouble. It is quite apparent that even as a physical familial trait may show itself in the peasantry, where droit de seignior has been exercised even generations before, so too may magic show up in the muggle peasantry from the heritance of naughty boys who use muggles rather than sully a witch of good standing with their intemperate youthful urges. I am sure you have done something similar in your own youth. A wise man, however, knows what offspring he may have and keeps an eye on them. But keeping track of such matters may prove more difficult over time; I have had the greatest of difficulty tracking down all the products of your great grandfather's profligate youth. I am pleased that you accept that there is merit in using these, and as you are now ready to listen, I propose to start to build a power base beginning with our own blood. I have often despaired of making you understand some pragmatism but I am delighted that Professor Prince has encouraged this. You should attempt to make an ally of his grandson, who is only a half-blood and may have difficulty forging alliances because of it._

 _Your proud father,_

 _Abraxus,_

 _Head of the House of Malfoy."_

" _My dear father,_

 _I regret that the chance to forge an alliance with Severus Prince may have passed me by. It is he who leads the gang who stopped my former friends and me from having some sport with the squib, Filch, and I have not come out well from encounters with the brats. As one of them is the scion of House Black, Sirius Black, and another the scion of House Potter, James Potter, I fear he already has pure blood allies. Two of his other gang members are pureblood, albeit of lowborn families, and he is on friendly terms with the scion of House Longbottom. The only pureblood in his house he does not get on well with is the Weasel._

 _It does not sit well with me to pretend that my time in Gryffindor Tower has altered my way of thinking, nor would it be believable. I am thinking perhaps I should be 'suitably chastened' and behave with courtesy towards the wretched boy, and even his mudblood friends. I cannot like this much, but I bow to your suggestion to try, for the greater good of House Malfoy._

 _Your obedient son,_

 _Lucius,_

 _Scion of the Family Malfoy."_

" _My dear son,_

 _You are correct that a sudden change of heart will not be believable. I think your suggested approach will work as well as any. I will attempt to get to know Tiberius Prince better during the next holidays._

 _Stay out of trouble and work hard, and keep away from the Lestranges. Like the Fates who had only one eye and one tooth between them, I think they have only one brain cell and have to pass it back and forth._

 _Your loving father,_

 _Abraxus Malfoy_

 _Head of House Malfoy."_

"Malfoy's being polite, should we be worrying?" asked Remus.

"He might have learned his lesson," Peter suggested.

"You're too optimistic," Severus opined. "If you ask me, he's got the sense to sit out his sentence and get over heavy ground lightly."

"That I more readily believe, agreed Sirius. "At least he's falling back on the usages of etiquette and it makes it easier for us and for him."

Tiberius glanced up as his fire flared green.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this call, Abraxus?" he asked. Like all private quarters save the headmaster's office his fireplace would send and receive floo calls but could only allow people to pass through it with the use of a password to take down the wards.

"I wanted to thank you, Tiberius, for persuading my son not to be an idiot and run headlong into the snares of that snotty half-blood Vol…"

"Do not speak his name," said Tiberius, sharply. "Never heard of egophonic magic?"

"Buggered if I have but I can figure out what it is. He can do that?"

"Let's say I'd rather not risk Tom Riddle being able to do so," said Tiberius. "I don't think he uses his real name with it."

"Tom Riddle? One time head boy, darling of the Slug Club and beloved of everyone except Albus and Minerva?"

"You knew him?"

"He was three years ahead of me. I always suspected him of having opened the Chamber of Secrets and dropping the blame for that girl who died on Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid should never had been in school in my opinion, but the matter was never properly investigated if you ask me."

"Abraxus, we need to talk."

"Meet me in the Hog's Head then at seven. I believe we may be of use to each other."

xxx

"So. You know about egophonic magic. I know Tom Riddle personally. He was a good prefect, able to charm the most recalcitrant enemies into working together. He was a model student and I thought he was hiding a fuck load of stuff about himself."

Tiberius nodded.

"Nobody ever suggested you aren't shrewd, Abraxus. I think it's the fae blood in your family."

"I can smell when things aren't true. My cousin, Xenophilus Lovegood does it too, only more so. I'm glad I don't have it as strongly as he does, half the time he's talking about things nobody else can see, and he gets treated like a lunatic, because he uses codewords of his own to refer to the … well, the auras he can see."

"Ravenclaw, isn't he? Fourth year. Doesn't say a lot."

"He's much bullied by his own House, and Lucius won't talk to him, little idiot, because for one thing he's in a different House, and for another, Lucius does not have the fae talent even in the minor way and I don't think he believes in it. He thinks Xenophilus is mad."

"Unfortunate."

"My son is a bit of an idiot at times but at least he's had the sense to listen to you."

"I am glad that he has, I had hoped he would do so. I have no liking for him as he has tried to cause trouble for my grandson, but as a teacher of his, I have a responsibility towards him to keep him safe if I can. I don't agree with a lot of his and your views, Abraxus, but we are agreed, I think, that Riddle has to be brought down."

"Yes, we are agreed on that. And I suppose that also makes Dumbledore an ally."

"And a most uncomfortable bedfellow that manipulative old coot is," said Tiberius. "I don't trust him further than I could kick a troll, not over his ideals and beliefs, but over the way he does things. He was busy setting up a student to be so isolated he would be the kid's only friend to use him as a spy in Riddle's organisation."

"Not Lucius?" Abraxus was alarmed.

"No, an even younger child."

"Getting a spy in the creep's organisation would be useful, but I can't do it, Riddle knows I never liked him."

"No, that's why someone else has to do it."

"You, Tiberius?"

"You realised I legilimensed you before I was prepared to admit it?"

"You did, did you? I never felt a thing. Well I'll support you as much as I can. Does your grandson have a godfather in case …."

"He has his mother, and his inheritance. He'll be fine. He's also got potentially powerful friends."

"Yes, Lucius told me. Lucius also told me that you implied that Riddle was insane."

"He probably is, which may help, but if he isn't, it's a risk I have to take. I need to know who is in his organisation and who is not, because I wager we might be surprised."

"You mean Gryffindors?"

Tiberius shrugged.

"It wouldn't surprise me. Some pure bloods of supposed 'light' families have views that make you a liberal."

"That surprises me."

"Yes, but then, I'm sure there are Gryffindors who would be surprised to find you ready to oppose the self-styled dark lord."

"Fair point. I can actually see where their opinion that all Slytherin who were at school with him might follow him; he was charismatic."

"But then, his identity is not widely known."

"I hadn't bothered to think about it, but it's not hard to put together though."

"But then, Abraxus, you actually use what you have between the ears."

xxx

Lucius was glad to return to Slytherin's rooms under the lake, where he found that many of his supposed friends were less courteous to him, traditionalist or no, than the majority of the Gryffindors had been. Having the boys of his dormitory holding their noses and asking if the smell was the smell of rancid lion was not amusing.

Lucius had a bit of an epiphany. The ruddy mudbloods in Gryffindor had been more polite to him than those in his own house. This necessitated a serious number of jinxes to put the contumelious ones back in their places. He noted that Greengrasse and his gang, even the hapless Avery, who had no cause to like him, treated him the same as before, and he went over to Greengrasse in the common room.

"Mr. Greengrasse, well met," he said.

"Well met, Mr. Malfoy," said David Greengrasse.

"I am pleased that you and your friends have the manners of gentlemen, not the manners of apes, as mar some of those in our house," Lucius said. "I will not forget this. You are all under the protection of House Malfoy," and he nodded to each of David's friends including Edmund Avery. He hesitated. "Mr. Avery, I apologise for mistreating you earlier this year. I never found any of the information I sent you to discover, even living in Gryffindor Tower. I was unreasonable to expect more of you. Now you lot stay out of the way of the Lestrange boys and Mulciber; they consort with Death Eaters."

"Crumbs, Mr. Malfoy, I thought you were a Death Eater," said Avery.

"I don't consort with losers," said Lucius, haughtily.


	20. Chapter 20

_my apologies if I didn't update yesterday, I don't remember if I did or not, I was somewhat feverish and suffering from Labyrinthitis which is a bit like being on the Atlantic in a gale on the Titanic_

 **Chapter 20**

"There are changed dynamics in Slytherin House," Narcissa told the other Marauders. "Lucius has decided that Death Eaters are losers, and I've cautiously allied with him. He's actively helping Greengrasse and he actually apologised to Avery. I've never known him to apologise before."

"Crumbs!" Sirius was taken aback.

"Granddad says we ought to get Xenophilus Lovegood on our side," said Severus.

"He's insane," said Narcissa.

"Granddad says it comes of being part fae because he's a Malfoy cousin, and he can see people's auras and makes up weird names for things he sees," said Severus.

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt, so long as he doesn't betray us," said James. "And then we'd have one in each house. If people think he's insane he must be pretty isolated, like Dumbles tried to do to Remus, and like Cherry here."

Charity blushed.

"People think I'm insane for caring about muggles," she said.

"Which proves they're the nutters," said Sirius, putting an arm around her. Charity blushed.

Xenophilus Lovegood regarded the group of juniors. Narcissa was busy, and was also concerned about intimidating a younger boy, so had not joined them. He had pale hair like the Malfoys and wore it long, and tied back. Somehow it almost gave him the impression of being elderly.

"A gang without a single infestation of nargles or wrackspurts? That has to be unusual," he said.

"I wish you'd tell us what nargles and wrackspurts actually mean," said Severus. "We know you can see auras, and we'd like to invite you to be our friend because we all look out for each other. And we should like someone in Ravenclaw as well. And if we have you, we have ten, which is both arithmantically 'rebirth' and also reduces to one, the unity, which as we all stand together is significant."

"Ah! Someone who believes in the power of arithmancy," said Xenophilus.

"Totally," said Severus. "I'm trying to study on my own, but perhaps you could help me?"

Xenophilus brightened.

"Certainly!" he said. "You have a nice clean aura. But I'd only tell you that because you already know. My father says it's supposed to be a secret."

"We all have secrets and if you'll swear loyalty to us you'll learn ours," said Severus. "And we have no blood snobbery so if you have a down on the muggleborn, you had better walk away."

"My dear boy! I am most impressed with not just muggleborn but muggles, whose adventures in what they call mathematics, our arithmancy, go way beyond what wizards have discovered, even if Madam Wenlock made some arithmantic discoveries before they really got going. Back in the times of Ancient Greece, wizards and muggles worked on such things together of course, and Pythagoras, a well-known wizard, is equally revered by muggles."

"I never knew he was a wizard," said Lily.

"Muggleborn, too," said Xenophilus. "Became a disciple of the Scythian wizard Abaris, who is said to have taken him to hell. It'll be an allegory for an attempt to infest himself with wrackspurts of course."

"Yes, Phil, but what _are_ wrackspurts?" demanded James.

"Phil?"

"Well, Xenophilus is a bit of a mouthful," said James.

"Pa calls me Xeno, but … I like Phil," said Xenophilus. "Wrackspurts are the things that make people depressed, or oppressed. They make your brain go fuzzy. It … it's a manifestation of negativity. Like Dementors."

"I can dig that, man. And we'll give you the skinny on us," said James.

"What?" said Phil.

"Ignore James, he's been learning about muggles and he thinks he's real sharp," giggled Petunia.

"Jeepers creepers, sister, you were the one who said I should learn to talk the talk so I wouldn't stand out," said James.

"And you do it very well," said Petunia, "But it's not appropriate in school."

"It was Phil's codewords that set me off," said James. "No fair for only one person in a conversation to be confusing."

Xenophilus smiled.

"You kids are funny," he said. "Nargles are … people with unpleasant intentions. The sort who steal your kit, you know? To keep it from you because they want to pay you back for … for being weird."

"Huh, you let us know who the nargles are, and we'll see to a bit of payback," said Sirius.

"There's no need," said Phil.

"Oh, but there is," said Severus. "Whether you are one of us or not, that's bullying. And we are sworn to stand up to bullies, whether that's nasty little toerag in the first, or a Death Eater. Because sometimes showing bullies what they are doing can stop them bullying."

"Sirius and Peter and I would have made fun of squibs if Sev hadn't taught us better," said James, soberly. "Sometimes retribution is the best form of discipline and easier to teach a lesson than going to a teacher. Does Flitters know about the nargles?"

Phil shook his head.

"I didn't tell him. It seemed … juvenile."

"They are juvenile, mate," said Sirius, wondering if he would have ragged a boy who spoke about odd creatures. He was glad Xenophilus Lovegood hadn't been in his house and year, so he didn't have to find out.

There was a voice from the stairs.

"Hey look, it's Loser Lovegood! Stop confusing and corrupting firsties, Loser!"

They looked up to see a group of three Ravenclaws the same age as Xenophilus.

"Don't call him that!" Lily was the first to say it.

"Firstie, he deserves it; he is a loser," sneered one of them. "I know you're only Gryffindors – oh, and a Huffer – but even you can't be stupid enough to want to hang around with him."

"Stupid, eh?" said Severus. "So stupid indeed that we firsties can jinx you so hard you won't be able to get out of it without calling for help."

The Ravenclaw boy looked at his female companions and laughed.

"You wish, little boy," he said.

"Very well, you asked for it," said Severus, clenching his teeth and concentrating on the incantation he had been working on, with a swish and flick of his wand that was like, and yet unlike, that of the levitation charm, working on using the words inside his head so as not to give it away by vocalising it, picturing the runes that would make it smoother.

There were three collective yelps as the Ravenclaw fourth years were grabbed by the ankle by an invisible force and dragged to dangle upside-down.

"I managed all at once? Neat," said Severus.

"Oh nicely done, Severus," said James. "Now let's go out of earshot and you can tell us what that amazing spell is."

Severus quickly withdrew with his friends.

"I call it 'levicorpus'," he said.

"Hey, it's one you invented? That's majorly cool," said James.

"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "I'm impressed."

"It doesn't harm them and it takes them out of commission if they are stupid enough to keep their wands stuck in their belts or pockets not in proper holsters," smirked Severus, who had seen all three wands fall to the floor. "Of course they can summon their wands, if they know the spell, but it buys time. I'm going to teach myself to cast wandless as well as wordless, because then I won't ever be at a loss."

"Outta sight!" breathed James.

"Sev is a real groovy dude," said Petunia.

"They're some of the nargles," said Phil.

"Well that's denargleified them a bit," said Peter. "Hey, Sev, is there a counter?"

"I think it ought to be 'liberacorpus'," said Severus. "Levicorpus, lift the body, liberacorpus, release the body. I kinda jammed together Wingardium Leviosa with mobilocorpus which I heard Madam Pomfrey using on someone who was ill."

"The theory is sound," said Phil.

"And right now we are going up to Ravenclaw tower to put runes all over Phil's stuff so the nargles can't steal them," said Severus. "C'mon you types!"

"What about the password?" asked Lily.

"Oh Ravers don't have password, you have to answer a riddle," said Severus, who had picked that up by eavesdropping.

"Oh, easy peasy lemon squeezy," said Lily. "What are we waiting for?"

Xxx

The eagle knocker regarded the group of youngsters with disapproval.

"Groups of three if you please," it said.

"Sirius, Peter, you go with Phil, Remus, Lily, you and Petunia and I'll take Charity and James," decided Severus, making sure there was at least one competent riddler in each group.

"What can be defined by the absence of something else?" asked the knocker.

"Evil is the absence of love," said Lily.

"And darkness is the absence of light," said Remus.

"Two reasonable answers," said the knocker. "Pass."

"We'll wait and all go in together," said Lily, firmly.

"As you wish. What do all men desire, and few achieve, because they do not have enough to know how to seek it?"

"Wisdom," said Phil.

"A good answer," said the knocker. "And finally, there is a bungalow, in which all the furniture is purple, the carpets are purple, the walls are purple, and the doors are purple, in fact everything in it is purple. What colour are the stairs?"

"If it's a bungalow, there aren't any," said Severus.

"Well you can listen at least," said the knocker. "You may all pass."

"Crumbs, Phil, where did Ravenclaw get the reputation for cleverness?" asked Severus as they went through.

"Oh, the riddles are simple enough if you only think about them," said Phil. "They get harder for older ones, generally, though; it seems to sense the average age."

"Oh, very well then," said Severus.

"Hey! What are those Gryffindors doing in here? Did you let them in, Loser?" demanded a Ravenclaw prefect.

"We passed the riddles fair and square and aren't you ashamed as a prefect to be bullying a younger member of your house by calling him a really nasty name?" demanded Lily. "If any of our prefects behaved like that we'd be ashamed to own them as prefects. So much for your wit and wisdom!"

The prefect flushed.

"Sorry, Lovegood," he said. "Everyone uses it."

"Then perhaps it's time to stop everyone using it, before you all become nice little Death Eater types," snapped Severus.

"Hey, that's harsh!"

"Death Eaters like bullying those they perceive as weaker than themselves. Is there a difference?"

The prefect flushed darker.

"I … take your point. What are you kids doing here?"

"We're here to set up wards against nargles including traps to catch them at it." Severus said.

"Nargles? You don't believe in that tripe?"

Severus gave him a fishy look.

"I believe something will get caught in the traps which I am choosing to define at the moment as nargles," he said.

The prefect shrugged.

Soon all of Phil's work, bed, chest of drawers, trunk and bag were protected with runic wards, with the twist of marking anyone who interfered with them.

And then it was tea time, and the Marauders went to get it with consciences that were, to their own minds, squeaky clean. Because if the three fourth year Ravenclaws were ready to confess to being bested by a Gryffindor firstie, Severus swore he would eat his hat.

As it happened the Ravenclaws were most unwilling to tell Filius Flitwick how they came to be dangled from one ankle and had not been able to regain their wands in order to release themselves. Flitwick used _finite incantatem_ , a spell not usually used below the sixth form, and discovered his rescued Eagle fledgelings most unwilling to talk about who had done this and why.

"Then I have to assume that if you will not tell me why you were jinxed so ingeniously, that you had been bullying someone again! And if Mr. Lovegood, or someone else, is clever enough to put the three of you up in the air at once, when he's no older than you, I have to give him credit for fighting back against your nasty habits! Try not to come to my attention again this year!" scolded Flitwick.

The released bullies did not deny his words, which told its own story, and Flitwick sought out Xenophilus.

"Xenophilus, my boy, an excellent spell to hoist those little menaces," he squeaked. "Well done!"

Phil went red.

"It wasn't my spell and I didn't do it, though I know how, now," he said.

"It wasn't you? They didn't deny it was someone no older than them."

"No, sir; it was a firstie, said Phil, and started laughing. "A Gryffindor firstie."

"Dear me! I must issue fifteen points to Gryffindor then!" said Filius. "I prefer my fledgelings to sort out their own problems, but I am aware of what goes on if you ever need to make a formal complaint."

"I don't like to do so, sir. And … and now I have friends who have shown me how to use runes of warding. So I shouldn't have any more trouble."

"Good. I am sure I will find out soon who has been causing you to lose house points by not having your homework available or having it covered in ink, or not being properly attired," said Flitwick. "I had been considering assigning a house elf to watch your things, but runes of warding! Who are these talented friends?"

"A bunch of firsties in Gryff and one Huffer," said Phil. "And they learn spells from a senior Slytherin too and … and I'm their first Raver."

"Well well! Enterprising and utilising the spirit of co-operation. Most satisfactory!"


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Flitwick was very disappointed to discover that the three fourth years were also sporting gloves and hats at breakfast the next day.

"My office!" he squeaked.

Resignedly they took themselves to the head of Ravenclaw's office.

"Take off the gloves and hats," demanded Flitwick.

Reluctantly they did so.

Their hands were red, and their foreheads bore the word 'thief'.

"I see," said Flitwick. "So, you tripped the protective wards set up by your victim …"

"Sir, nobody has any right to put harmful jinxes like that, taking away someone's character!" whined one of the girls.

"I don't see anyone whose character has been taken away," said Filius. "I see three little thieves, who have been targetting another boy since his first year, and who have finally been caught, literally red handed. I had my suspicions about who was damaging or taking Lovegood's work, which is about as despicable a thing as anyone can do to a scholar, to attack their scholarship! You are despicable! I doubt even Slytherin would be so low as to do that, though I can see it of some of the more bone-headed Gryffindors who place no value in scholarship! I am glad that at last I know who has been involved in the stealing from Mr. Lovegood!"

"I suppose he's run whining about every little joke when we hid stuff, it wasn't stealing," said the girl.

"Miss Crawford, it was stealing! And no, I have heard nothing from Mr. Lovegood at all, who has stoically taken detentions that you should have taken for not handing in his work, because you have … _hidden_ it. Which means, unless you give him a clue as to where it is hidden, you have the intent to permanently deprive, and that is the definition of theft! You were too cowardly to tell him you had taken it and permit him to retrieve it, which might have been some mitigation! Well, as you have not grown out of such wicked and childish tricks by your age, you will not be hiding behind hats and gloves any longer; I will find out how long the marks of warding last and if it is permanent I will endeavour to remove it, in due course. In the meantime, I have here a list of the detentions Mr. Lovegood has served during the past four years as a result of lost or defaced work, and you will be serving those detentions as well. I looked them up when he told me he had warded his work when I congratulated him on the spell which hoisted you, and he told me he had received help from Gryffindor firsties. I can see why you were too ashamed to admit it. And I should think that your evenings will be taken up for the rest of the term and parts of next with the detentions you are due."

"Sir, that's not fair!" the boy said.

"Not fair, Mr. Dagworth? How do you figure that? Was it fair for Mr. Lovegood to serve all those detentions? It was not. He has done punishment for the wrongdoing of others! Others who have sought to ridicule him for some strange reason of their own because they fear his ability to see auras and name them as they are! You are, I'm afraid, nargles, otherwise known as thieving malicious brats!"

"It wasn't only us that did it!" cried Dagworth.

"Then if you would care to tell me who else was a nargle, I shall include them in the punishment," said Flitwick.

"And let us off some?"

"No, Mr. Dagworth that is not part of the bargain. You chose to pick on and bully another member of your house. Therefore you will be undertaking just punishment for that bullying. And anyone else who may have done so will suffer the same consequences! Bullying is an activity for those who have insufficient brainpower to achieve anything meaningful, and you should be careful that I do not insist that you be re-hatted into one of the other houses where witless violence might be more in keeping with the ethos of that house. You are despicable, and if any of you come to my notice ever again you will be expelled. Now you will start tonight with a two hour detention with Professor Slughorn scrubbing cauldrons; I will have your detention schedule drawn up and posted on the common room wall by tomorrow."

Wails of protest were to no avail, and Flitwick dismissed the miscreants and went to talk to those professors who had punished Xenophilus Lovegood over the previous four years.

Perhaps it might teach those three the value of tolerance of those with odd gifts and persuade them that bullying was a really bad idea.

There again, maybe Mrs. Norris would learn to whistle, reflected Flitwick, but one had to try.

OoOoOo

Xenophilus had never been a joiner; largely because his slightly offbeat outlook on the world tended to put people off rather than to encourage them to be friendly towards him. However, he was soon finding that even though the majority of his new friends were firsties, they were well-read and largely intelligent firsties, who asked him sensible questions about his own odd senses.

"The fae use something called 'glamour'," he explained. "They like to appear lordly and imposing to mortals, but as often as not, it's all a lie, and they are dirty and ragged. There is supposed to be an ointment that can be brewed to give mortals true seeing, but I'm not sure how much that is truth and how much is muggle legend. Rather like the tales of Beedle the Bard, some of which might have bases in truth but which have been romanticised over the years. Some people believe firmly in the three deathly hallows, and they might be based on real artefacts."

"Lily and I don't have a clue what you're talking about," said Petunia.

Xenophilus was a good yarn-spinner, and he told the stories.

"Here, wait a minute," said James, "My invisibility cloak is a family heirloom, and hasn't lost any of its abilities since my great grandfather at least wrote about it in his diary. And we're supposed to be descended from the Peverells."

"Isn't that a little far fetched?" asked Lily.

"Dunno, but Phil is right, most of them lose invisibility after fifty years or so," said James. "And if that's real, then the other hallows might be as well."

"Not that the others are half so useful," said Severus. "Who wants to bring back the dead, all uncomfortable and cold! And as for a special wand, well, I don't think it does to rely on a wand, it makes you weak and sloppy. That's why we're practicing to cast wandlessly as well as practising wordlessly. If we can ever do both we'll be more awesome than any elder wand."

"Yeah, spot on," agreed Sirius. "However good your wand is, any spell someone can see and hear coming can be countered."

"Anyway," said Phil, "Whether your cloak is one of the hallows or not, which sounds far fetched, but stranger things can happen, the fae can see through their own glamour, and can choose not to do so. Those of us with fae blood who can see through glamour don't have the choice because we see through it and can't avoid it. And we can also see something of the … the colours of the souls of mortals, and see health and sickness, poison, lying, malice, goodness and … and so on. Sometimes it's a bit scary."

"I imagine it would be," said Narcissa, who had joined them. She was spending more time with Fabian, but tried to meet up with the Marauders when she could. "I bet you're glad you're not a Slytherin, we take lying to an art form."

"But your soul is bright," said Phil. "I would not like it, I think, but Ravenclaws can lie to themselves, and that is worrying."

OoOoOo

"Horace, what do you recall about Tom Riddle?" asked Tiberius Prince, casually.

"Tom Riddle? He was a very talented student. None of us had any idea he was going to turn bad," said Horace.

"I understand he had a good line of charm," said Tiberius.

"You could say that," Horace was unwilling to discuss it.

"Member of the Slug Club, I have no doubt," said Tiberius.

"Well, of course, I always invite the talented to join. I was unconcerned about his birth; I've never been bothered about blood purity."

"No, you have the sense you were born with, Horace," Tiberius smiled. "Candied pineapple? I got a box for us to share, I know you like them too."

"Oh, thank you, Tiberius! I am partial to them."

Tiberius smiled. The draught he had brewed was nothing like so crude as a babbling potion, or even as brute force as veritaserum. It was just a relaxant.

"So, you were going to tell me about the book he was telling you about, with egophonic magic in it?"

"Yes, he told me it was potentially very useful."

"Did he mention the _cruentes horae_ as well?"

"A fanciful name, he anglicised it to 'horcrux'," said Horace. "The 'wounds of the goddesses of the hours at the gates of heaven' seemed a little fanciful. However, I pointed out that it was an unwise step for anyone to take, because it wasn't wounding some airy-fairy bint of a goddess, but wounding one's own soul, and to consider more than one was just horrific."

"More than one? Surely not!"

"I know, the silly boy was talking about six, so one had an arithmantically correct number of pieces of soul." The fat potions professor shuddered, which did ugly things to his waistcoat.

"Well, there were a number of interesting things in that sixteenth century manual by Lucius Apul,"

"Yes, and I wish Tom hadn't found it."

"Indeed. Six horcruces! Do you think he's managed to make that many?"

"Oh, I cannot think so. The ritual is quite complex."

"That's true. How many do you suppose he has?"

"Oh, dear me, I couldn't undertake to say. No more than four. He couldn't have done the preparation at school, and I imagine it must have been taken several years to be ready to make the first. If he did go ahead … Tiberius, I swore to myself I'd never even remember this again!"

"Because he persuaded you to talk about making more than one? I expect the nasty little creep fed you a babbling draught."

Horace stared in horror, pausing before selecting another piece of pineapple.

"Really? Do you think so?" he was aghast.

"He knew how to keep you happy with sweeties," said Tiberius, helping himself to pineapple himself.

"And of course he would not be eating with me … even he was not that bold," said Horace. "Tiberius, I fear you may have the truth; he poisoned me with babbling draught!"

"Most dishonourable of him," said Tiberius, helping himself to the last sweetie in the row of adulterated ones. He had already taken the antidote, and Horace could test the rest to his heart's content and would find them quite unaffected. It was by understanding psychology that Tiberius had induced Horace to eat three of the only four affected sweeties in the box.

OoOoOo

"Horcruces, Albus," said Tiberius.

"Plural of horcrux?" Albus raised an eyebrow. "I only have the vaguest of ideas what that may be."

"A horcrux is a part of the soul, split off in a vile ceremony which includes as its culmination the deliberate murder of another person. The preparation of an object to become a horcrux involves immersing it in a potion comprising, among other things, mandrake and unicorn blood. It is unstable, however, and one cannot prepare several batches to re-use at a later date. Though I do not rule out the preparation of a number of horcrux hosts in a single batch. Have I actually shocked you, Albus?"

"Somewhat. I confess to being taken aback. On what do you base the idea that he might have more than one?"

"Horace. Apparently Riddle spoke to him of the efficacy of multiple horcruces."

"Why has Horace never told me?" the tone was slightly petulant.

"Because, Albus, he is not proud of discussing the matter; and at least I am a fellow Slytherin," said Tiberius. _And because devious and manipulative old devil that you are, you could still take lessons from a Slytherin in constructive poisoning,_ he thought.

OoOoOo

"Albus is of the opinion that when Riddle came to Hogwarts to apply again for the job of DADA teacher last year, he came to steal some significant item to make into a horcrux, but in my opinion he was using the opportunity to hide one, under the eyes of his greatest enemy in the last place he would look," Tiberius told Abraxus Malfoy.

Abraxus nodded.

"Albus does not understand the Slytherin mindset," he said. "It would be a way to cock a snoot at him to do so. I doubt he would choose Albus' own office, joyous irony as it would be, but I would not be surprised to find something hidden in Slytherin House itself."

"And the foul miasmas of such an item might also have an effect on the weak minded and make them prey to his whispers," said Tiberius. "It would tend to explain why Slytherin House has become more contentious than I recall it in my youth."

"Hah! Then you need to discover it and destroy it."

"Yes. And I have studied the ritual by which the damaged soul is ripped from the wizard making the horcrux, in order to embed it into the prepared object, and I believe I can prepare a ritual to remove the fragment from the object into which it it placed. Though it may also destroy that object."

"Well, it isn't exactly something you can try on an odd horcrux you find lying about to test it," Abraxus was ironic.

"No, quite, I have to get it right and hope that it won't alert him."

"I don't envy you."

"No, but our House spawned him, our House needs to deal with him, what comes from Slytherin stays in Slytherin. But I'm not too proud to have help from others."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

"So we are looking for some kind of … what?" asked Narcissa.

"According to Albus, who has his moments if you can prod him, Tom Riddle was in the habit of collecting trophies from the kids he terrorised in the orphanage where he grew up," said Tiberius. The Marauders were having tea in his personal chambers. "I suspect that he may have tried to find the sort of artefacts that people would be unlikely to destroy even if they found them. Horace told me that the boy kept a diary during the time that the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and I wager he did the opening. I think his diary might be one of the horcruces. But that might be too precious to leave him. He worked for a while for Borgin and Burke, so he might have got his hand on any number of odd artefacts there. Albus believes that he acquired the cup of Hufflepuff and the locket of Slytherin when he was working there, based on the memory of a house elf."

"Is that reliable?" asked Narcissa.

"Any true memory is reliable. The unfortunate elf may have been senile, but probably not as senile as she thought. She's supposed to have accidentally killed her mistress, but I wouldn't mind betting that she had … help."

"What an egregious little toerag Riddle is," said Severus.

"Severus, how can you use an excellent word like 'egregious' in combination with such a vulgarity as 'toerag'?" groaned Tiberius.

"Natural talent?" suggested Severus. "How's it going with the researches on Remus?"

"It won't be easy," said Tiberius, accepting that curing a friend was bound to loom larger in the eyes of his grandson than dealing with anything so nebulous as horcruces. "However, I have two ideas I am working on, and I will hope to have perfected one by the end of the year."

"Thank you, sir," said Remus. "I have to say that the runestone, meditation and chanting make such a huge difference that I am grateful to you and to Sev even if you can't work out anything more."

"I confess I'd not mind a modicum of fame for curing lycanthropy," said Tiberius.

"Which is good, but how will I know if I see a horcrux in Slytherin House?" asked Narcissa.

"You will feel tense, angry, uptight," said Tiberius. "Don't go looking right before you are due for your monthlies, because the hormones might just confuse you. Go looking when you have sat and meditated and are in a state of peacefulness."

Narcissa nodded.

"This I can do," she said. "Would he have hidden more than one in the school?"

"I don't know. I was thinking of him using Slytherin house because of the bad atmosphere there these days, which surely can't be entirely accounted for by Death Eaters in the school."

"There might be places which are more neutral where people don't linger," said Narcissa. "I just wondered if he'd hide something like Hufflepuff's cup in plain view, under illusion magic to look like a prize cup, in the trophy room, perhaps under a gaze-repelling charm so people don't dwell on looking at it."

Tiberius stared, with some respect.

"That is actually fairly brilliant, Narcissa, and within the psyche of the boldness of Riddle," he said.

Narcissa returned to Slytherin House and paused to stare at the portrait of Salazar Slytherin in an obscure corridor. Famously, the portrait did not interact with students, and the rumour was that the likeness was so poor that the personality of Salazar was outraged and refused to enter the portrait at all. This was belied by the way the eyes occasionally followed the students about, which is why it had been banished from the common room. Narcissa personally thought that it was more likely that Slytherin considered himself above the banal daily chatter of any schoolchildren, rather like the Bloody Baron, who was rumoured to be a descendant of Slytherin himself.

She studied the medallion he wore, a large disk with a stylised snake on it in emeralds, making the letter 'S'.

And then she frowned.

There was a similar shape in the frame, but it was bulbous and oval, as though the medallion itself had been worked into something like the front of a locket. And there was a chain running from it, pressed into the frame.

Narcissa reached for it, and then let her hand drop. The portrait's eyes glittered maliciously.

"Wise move," it murmured, barely audible.

"It needs an adult who understands these things," said Narcissa.

The portrait said no more, but Narcissa could have sworn that there was a brief, curt nod.

She swung round and made directly for the private quarters of the DADA professor.

OoOoOo

"Narcissa?"

"Come quickly, Mr. Prince, I've found one of them!"

"A horcrux? Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."

"My apologies, of course not. Where is it?"

"Embedded in the frame of the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. He actually spoke to me!"

"He used to be relatively chatty in my young day."

She stared.

"Really? I've never known him to speak at all."

"Mmm. I'll see if he speaks to me."

OoOoOo

"Honoured founder, why is it that you will not speak to your people? I recall you used to talk to me willingly enough, discussing runecraft."

The portrait glared from under hooded eyelids.

"Kill the abomination who says he is my heir. And get that … thing … out of my frame."

"The second will lead to the first," said Tiberius. "I am hoping to use a ritual …"

"Ritual be damned, you need basilisk venom."

"Honoured founder, where am I to find basilisk venom? I doubt there are any…"

"There is a basilisk sleeping in the Chamber of Secrets. The abomination awoke it to kill other students, those who it thought were invading muggle priests, whose magic did not hold markers of familial protection."

"So you don't disapprove of muggle born wizards?" blurted out Narcissa.

"Fool of a wench! I disapprove of those who don't understand our world and want to destroy it! Muggleborn were always adopted into wizarding families in my young day, and had ritual adoption markers."

"That … makes sense," said Narcissa.

"Time for me to adopt the Evans girls perhaps then," said Tiberius. "How does one get to the Chamber of Secrets, and persuade the basilisk not to hurt one?"

"You need one of my bloodline, who can learn parseltongue from me, if they do not know it naturally, of course," said the portrait.

"Of course," said Tiberius, smiling mirthlessly. "Well that might take some doing. I'll have to get back to you."

"Just find out if anyone has a family history from around the fens," snapped the portrait, and turned his back on them.

Narcissa and Tiberius exchanged a look and rolled their eyes.

OoOoOo

"So we need to find someone whose family is from the fens, in the hopes that they might be descended from Slytherin," said Narcissa to the other Marauders.

"Well, we're from Devon, so we're no help, and the Malfoy side from Wiltshire," said Phil.

"And we Princes are from Yorkshire, though all the families of old lines are inter-related," said Severus.

"Potters are from the south," said James. "Siri?"

"Also mostly the south," Sirius scowled. "And some connection to Derbyshire."

"I'm from Devon," said Charity.

"We're from London," said Peter.

"And me from Shropshire," said Remus.

"And Petunia and Lily from Yorkshire like Sev," said James.

"No, actually we aren't," said Lily. "We moved to Yorkshire for Daddy to take up a job there. We came from Lincolnshire, near the Cambridge border. From a little village not that far from St Ives, called Little Hangleton."

"Interesting name," said Sirius.

"Well, it wasn't a nice place," said Lily. "Mummy found it creepy, so Daddy moved out readily enough. Tuney and I always had nightmares, Mummy says, when we got to about five."

"The age to manifest magic," said Severus.

"Yes, I suppose so," said Lily. "Oh! Is that why Tuney suppressed it?"

"It could be," said Severus. "Well! We must find out more. But it could be why you have magic in the family."

"Wait, you think we might be descended from the founder, Salazar Slytherin?" asked Petunia. "Why weren't we in Slytherin House, then?"

"Well could it be because we had already met Lucius Malfoy," said Severus.

"Oh, yeah," said Petunia. "Not for one moment was I going to listen to the hat telling me I was ambitious enough for Slytherin House after that."

"Did it offer it to you too?" asked Lily.

"Yes, and I turned it down."

"The hat plainly has some idea about background as well," said Narcissa.

"Unfortunately you won't have family Slytherin markers on your magic after such a long time," said Sirius. "But we need to get you to talk to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin."

"What else is an invisibility cloak for?" grinned James.

"We can't all get under it," grumbled Peter.

"No, but a couple of us can be let in by Narcissa and steal the portrait a little bit," said James.

"James," said Severus, "Wouldn't it be easier for my grandfather to just take the portrait to his quarters and we go in via the entrance from the main part of the school?"

"You take all the fun out of it," grumbled James.

"There'll be plenty of fun in finding a basilisk without getting killed or petrified," said Severus.

James brightened and Severus suppressed a groan that his irony was being taken at face value.

OoOoOo

The youngsters faced the portrait in Tiberius Prince's room.

Ssss _ssso you are my descendantsssss_? Ssss hissed the portrait.

"I can almost hear words," said Lily.

Ssss _We are your kindred_ ssss hissed Petunia.

The other Marauders stared at her.

"Do you understand it?" asked Severus, impressed. Petunia flushed.

"Yes, I do," she said.

"You are of my blood," said the portrait. "Prince, you will place the ritual markers of my bloodline on these two girls. The other will be able to learn to speak parseltongue with practice."

"I am not sure I know the markers, founder," said Tiberius.

"Call yourself a ritual warlock?" the portrait sneered. "Look at the medallion, locket as it is now. It has been worn by generations of my kindred. There will be skin flakes caught in the chain."

"Ewww," Petunia whispered to James. The portrait glared at her.

"Daughter of snakes, it is to your good fortune that this is so. It will give you my protection."

"Er, yes, sir," said Petunia, abashed.

Tiberius passed his wand over the chain, and began a chant, conjuring up patterns from it.

"Hey, that's Peverell," said James. "We have that in our heritance."

"And there's Malfoy in there too, and Black, not surprising," said Sirius. "The Peverell is fairly strong though."

"Hush," said Tiberius. He overlaid all the patterns and pulled away a strand which was one that was found in all. Then he started walking around the Evans sisters, chanting in a harsh voice and drawing runes in light in the circle about them. The runes flared, achingly bright, and the marker was sucked into the circle.

"Test it," said the portrait.

Tiberius cast a familial revelation spell, and the sigil of Slytherin showed up, in addition to a number of others.

"Gaunt, that's no surprise, the Gaunts lived in the fens, or rather, they lived in squalor in the region of the fens," said Tiberius. "Marvolo was at school with Albus and me, was several knuts short of a sickle, he didn't wash and he could scarcely string a coherent sentence together. He should never have been at school, and I swear he was swiving his sisters, Messalina and Morgause. Messalina married a Carrow as I recall, I have no idea what happened to Morgause."

"Daddy traced his family tree and we have a Merrychild Gaunt on it, in about 1850," said Lily.

"That will be the connection, then," said Tiberius. "Likely she was a squib who escaped the family."

"The abomination said his name was Tom Marvolo Riddle," volunteered the portrait.

"The empty mansion house was called Riddle House," said Petunia, suddenly. "It was haunted. Or so people said. I remember now!"

"The Gaunts never owned a mansion," said Tiberius. "So it looks as though Marvolo had a daughter who married a muggle-born Riddle? Maybe we shall find him in the book of all people."

"You won't," said the portrait. "The abomination used to talk to me, it's how he found out about the Chamber of Secrets; I'm afraid I told him before I realised what an abomination he was. He looked for his surname there. Riddle was a muggle, and he had black rages about it. Boasted about murdering him when he came back for his sixth year, but he put a curse on me, not to talk about him until I had been able to converse in parseltongue. I owe you gratitude, my granddaughter of granddaughters," he bowed to Petunia, who flushed. "I am sorry you are not in my house," he added, regretfully.

"We'd met people who were and they weren't nice," said Petunia. "Because of _him_."

"Call him 'Cousin Tom' when you meet him," said Salazar. "He will hate that more than anything else."

"Don't you go encouraging these younglings into anything too dangerous, founder," said Tiberius.

"If they come face to face with the abomination, they will need every distraction they can muster," said the Portrait. "Now hang me back where I belong, and the rest of you do what you can to learn Parseltongue if you want to help your friend."

"You belong in the common room, founder, and that's where you are going," said Narcissa, firmly.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Another challenge to the Marauders was in actually finding the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The layout of the castle had changed and grown since the time of Salazar Slytherin, and the portrait told them to use the map of the original castle to be found in _Hogwarts: a History,_ overlaid onto a map of the castle as it stood today.

"Only you'll have to make a map that morphs with the castle," he said. "The castle moves, you know, and changes."

"How can it do that?" asked Lily.

"Magic," said Slytherin. "Sometimes it adds rooms when more pupils are there. Sometimes it discourages pupils from going to certain places. And mostly it just breathes, in and out, changing the size and dynamics. It does so very slowly, one breath might take weeks. But it shifts the less stable elements like the stairs."

"Oh, I see, I think," said Lily.

"I have this one," said Sirius, his eyes glowing. "My dad got onto the subject of wizarding transport and maps, and he showed me a bit of geomancy. I really like the idea of making magical maps so I'm going to be studying geomancy in my spare time." He groaned. "And that means arithmancy. Phil, nice Phil!"

"I'll help," said Phil. "I know a bit of geomancy because I can see things that are hidden."

"Neat!" said Sirius.

School life went on as usual, of course. James and Sirius were keen quidditch fans, and were hoping to test for the team next year, which would have been more likely, as Severus said, if it hadn't come to the ears of the captain of the House team that James had managed to dream about chasing horcruces on little wings, eluding Voldemort, and managing to put a hurling hex on Sirius' bed. Naturally James could not speak about the nature of his dream, and he had been told off sharply that if that was a hex he could cast in his sleep, he had better never even try to cast it awake.

"He had a nightmare and cast the darkest magic he could think of, for goodness sake, Blunt," said Sirius, crossly. "Weasley has no business to go running off to tell you he's bound to cheat because he knows the hurling hex; we were using it to duel in DADA when Professor Prince told us to find ways of turning the environment on our opponent. It's not as though he was trying to cast an Unforgivable on Bethan Jones of the Holyhead Harpies, even if she does look like a troll."

"Miss Jones does not look like a troll," said Malcolm Blunt, the captain. He admired the Holyhead Harpies. Or at least he admired their top Chaser, Gwynneth Price. Sirius grinned.

"Grown-up women are as scary as trolls, anyway," he said.

"Oh, you kids are all loonies," said Blunt. He turned to James. "You were learning the hurling hex as a defence against dark arts? Are you serious?"

"No, he's Sirius," said James. "Yes, we were, Mr. Prince said we should use any and all means at our disposal short of the dark arts themselves if we found ourselves in a tricky situation. I mean, really, Blunt, if you were up against a redcap, and you had the opportunity to jab an elbow in its face and run away, would you seriously stop to think about whether you were cobbing? Be glad I'm not Lily Evans who has a neat line in fire spells, I might have set fire to Siri's bed not merely set it bucking like an untrained Granian."

"I'm glad of it, mate," said Sirius. "Some of us like quidditch fine well but contrary to popular belief, do not eat sleep and dream it. He's been reading dodgy thrillers again."

"Oh, very well," said Blunt.

"We need a jape to lighten up all this studying," grumbled James.

"Good idea!" Sirius brightened up. "Oy, Sev, what shall we do?"

"Why do you ask me?" Severus complained.

"You're the one with brains of course," Sirius smirked. "Why should we bother thinking when we have you to think for us?"

Severus rolled his eyes.

"I have a good one," said Remus, his amber eyes alight with unwonted mischief. "And it's all because of my own furry little problem!"

"What, turn everyone into werewolves?" quipped Sirius.

"Sort of," said Remus. "Petunia, didn't you say you knew a girl whose parents were hippies who made their own soap?"

"Yeah, she was a weirdo, but decent enough," said Petunia. "I had a nasty outbreak of acne and her soap cured them."

"Well I don't plan to cure anyone's festering spots, but to make soap with a hair-growing potion in it," said Remus, "But here's the catch! If Sev can come up with some clever runes to stamp into the soap, the hair won't grow until the full moon, so we catch everyone all together, not just the first few to use it!"

"Remus, mate, it's brilliant!" said James. "So now we need to brew the potion. Or, well, find out what potion to brew."

"I found a recipe already," said Remus. "I was thinking about what a bore it was having to be furry, last month, and how most people would have the heebie jeebies, either being me, or spending the night with me like the rest of you do. And I thought, well, why shouldn't they know a bit about it?"

"Good one," said Severus. "Shouldn't be hard, brewing up the soap will be hardest. And actually, rather than making soap from scratch, why don't we just grate school soap and reconstitute it with the potion in it?"

"Better plan," said Remus.

OoOoOo

The Marauders had set up a potions lab in the secret passage that started behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy. It had several wider parts to it which were almost small rooms, with a spell designed to take fumes away enchanted into the roof, courtesy of Narcissa and Phil. They had also collected as much soap as they could without it being obvious that it was vanishing,

"Grating soap is really hard work," whined Peter.

"Just carry on grating," said James through gritted teeth. "At least you got to help with the potion making, because you're actually good enough. Siri, Cherry and I have grazed as much knuckle as soap here."

"It'll be worth it," said Sirius. "Why did you leave the potion making?"

Peter shuffled.

"I was bored," he said.

"Well pick bored or sore knuckles, I guess," said James. "At least Sev trusts you in charge of a cauldron. He told me my boil cure potion was more likely to turn someone into a bubotuber plant."

"They're learning Parseltongue off of Tuney while it brews, and I can't get my mouth round it," said Peter.

"I don't think us four are much kop at linguistics," said James.

"How are we supposed to control a ruddy basilisk, anyway?" asked Peter.

"I suppose Salazar is going to give us some words of command or something," said Sirius. "And I'd rather grate soap than learn to speak with snakes; they're hissing like tea kettles down the corridor in the potions part."

Severus was helping Lily to learn the language of snakes from her sister. Petunia was not the most patient of teachers, and Lily got upset when her sister was impatient, so Severus took it upon himself to ask the questions that Lily was too flustered to ask. It was not long before Lily was starting to find the aptitude within herself, but Severus did not stop. It would be useful. It helped that snakes were very formal about their forms of address; presumably when so many of them were poisonous, it helped to have formula and etiquette, and Severus began wondering whether the muggle poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling might have been a parselmouth.

It was not, perhaps, the most fortuitous occurrence that Severus was practising hissing some polite exchanges to himself when he ran, literally, into the headmaster, going the other way round a corner.

"Oof! Sorry, sir," said Severus.

"I didn't know you were a parselmouth, Mr. Prince," said Dumbeldore.

"I'm not. Well, not really; it's frightfully hard to learn," said Severus. "Are you a parselmouth, then, sir?"

"As you say, it's frightfully hard to learn," said Dumbledore, relaxing a little. "What prompted you to do so?"

"Runes are terrifically important," said Severus. "And my grandfather suggested it might not be a bad thing to study. He got a text by Herpo the Foul."

"Ah, I see," Dumbledore smiled. "Well, don't let me keep you, my boy."

OoOoOo

"Well, my dear fellow, I believe I found out how you got past Tom's little curse on Slytherin's portrait that you mentioned," Dumbledore wagged a playful finger at Tiberius.

"Really, Albus?"

"You persuaded your grandson to learn some parseltongue from Herpo the Foul."

"Tom Riddle is a parselmouth; having others understand the tongue might be an advantage," temporised Tiberius. He had told Dumbledore some of the conversation he had had with Salazar Slytherin, but not all of it, nor had he mentioned the children, and particularly not the gift Petunia Evans had. "I suppose you did the same when you realised that Tom was a parselmouth."

"As you say, it's a wise precaution," Dumbledore was no more going to make outright admissions than Tiberius was. "Keep an eye on the boy; Herpo's writings are not very pretty."

"No," said Tiberius. Severus had been quick to grasp that what Herpo had described as a 'soul splinter' was no more nor less than a horcrux; and Herpo must be the earliest documented wizard to have tried that foray into darkness. Twelve years old was very young to have to know about such things, but then knowledge was armour. And discussing horcruces freely had revealed one. And the sooner the youngsters could come up with the location of the Chamber of Secrets the better. He had told Dumbledore about the horcrux in the picture frame, but not the method Slytherin had recommended for destroying it. He was still, officially, working on that.

OoOoOo

Remus' only regret was that he would be stuck in the shrieking shack while the soap did its thing. Severus was his volunteer as all the other boys really wanted to see what happened. Severus would have liked to have seen it too, but he chose to be with his friend instead, though Phil had volunteered.

"You're our eyes in Ravenclaw, Phil, and you need a jape to cheer you up after years of being the butt of so-called jokes by nargles," he said.

"Yeah, and you enjoy getting some own-back on the bullying turds," said James.

Phil did not take much persuading. Even anticipating being hairy over the full moon did not deter him.

And it was worth it.

The moment the full moon rose above the horizon, everyone who had washed with the treated soap felt a tingling on their skin, which was followed by a rich eruption of hair.

The screams were balm to the ears of the Marauders. The staff were immune, as none of the Marauders had quite dared to treat the staff bathrooms, and some of the prefects appeared to have only bathed in the prefect bathrooms; and it was apparent who had skimped on their washing amongst the juniors. All the Marauders had gleefully bathed to have an all over furry experience, which was uncomfortable under clothes but at least was thorough.

"You rotten Marauders did this!" howled Weasley.

"Don't you beard us in our den," said Sirius.

"No, it bristles with difficulty," said James.

"Hair today, gone tomorrow," managed Peter.

"It'll put hairs on your chest," quipped Sirius.

"That's just splitting hairs," James followed up.

Albus Dumbledore rose.

"Can anyone shed any light on the, er, outbreak of hirsuteness?" he asked.

The Marauders stood up, and Sirius spoke out.

"It's the Marauder werewolf curse," he said. "We wanted to make everyone aware of how horrid it would be to be a werewolf and when the moon sets we thought we'd make a whip-round for a fund towards research into a cure."

"I see; an almost virtuous jape," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "How did you effect this er, pilulous phenomenon?"

"We doctored the soap with a potion," said Sirius. "And that's why Sev isn't with us to take blame equally because he's the only poor sap in the world to come out allergic to the soap, and Remus has taken him to the hospital wing."

Dumbledore mentally applauded that piece of quick thinking, because the absence of Remus on full moon with the word werewolf actually bandied around might have been a dead giveaway.

"Is this effect, er, temporary?" he asked.

"Yes, the hair should all fall out when the moon sets," said Sirius. "I know, sir. Clear it up without magic because the elves will be put out. We'll need the passwords to other houses." As always the non-Gryffindor Marauders were not expected to take the blame, in case of being bullied.

"You anticipate my suggested punishment, and for your willingness to undertake it, I will ask the elves to deal with an excess of hair in the other houses," said Dumbledore. He had no intention of giving such efficient pranksters access to other houses.

Sirius bowed, and the Marauders sat down.

"I'm not contributing to your whip-round," growled Weasley.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting compassion for the afflicted from the mentally afflicted," said Sirius. "I don't know that I'd give a knut to help a wereweasel like you."

"Boys," one of the prefects chided. Sirius beamed at her, and Weasley fell on his food, muttering darkly.

It had been an excellent jape, although Fabian Prewett did remark to his brother Gideon that the hair and fur puns did get a little strained.

"Hairy old chestnuts, indeed," said Gideon, dryly.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

"In a girl's loo? Are you serious?" demanded James.

"Ever since I was given the name," quipped Sirius.

"Oh Siri! I mean… you aren't joking, are you?"

"Nope. I'm not joking. And Phil says that the loo isn't used by girls because it's haunted by the girl, Myrtle something, who was killed by the basilisk when Riddle let it out."

"Oh, this just gets better," muttered James. "A girl's loo with a girl ghost."

"Well better than a girl's loo with girls coming in and out and making comments about how gross it is to have boys in there, and running shrieking to McGonagall," said Lily.

"Ok, I grant you that point," said James.

Easter would be upon them too soon to do much more than reconnoitre the toilet where poor moaning Myrtle held sway. This was the task of Petunia, Lily and Charity with backup from Narcissa.

Myrtle sobbed in a stall, but knowing that she was a ghost meant that there was not a lot that could be done to help her.

"Perhaps when all the horcruces are destroyed and Riddle is dead she can move on," said Lily, uncomfortable about not comforting someone who was so plainly distraught, but unable to think of a way to comfort someone whose distress was really rather incurable.

"We could maybe ask Severus to seek a way to put her through the veil," said Narcissa. "Then she wouldn't be caught between life and death."

"How would you like it if I talked about you as though you weren't here?" Myrtle loomed suddenly at Narcissa.

"Don't be silly, little girl, adults and near adults always talk about children as though they aren't there," said Narcissa.

This made Myrtle retired to a toilet stall in noisy sobs, causing it to overflow. The female Marauders retreated from the flood. They had seen what they had come to see, a faucet in the shape of a snake. And they were under strict instructions not to try to open it without the rest of the Marauders being there.

Narcissa was also learning Parseltongue from Petunia, and practising it by chatting to Salazar Slytherin. It was one of those things that might come in handy. However, it was to cause her some problems.

The last week of term saw her in Hogsmeade with Fabian, on a tea-time pass.

"I'm hoping the influence of Tom Riddle will be less in Slytherin house now Salazar Slytherin's portrait is restored," she told Fabian. They were having tea in the Three Broomsticks.

"Restored? What was wrong with it?"

"Well Riddle had cursed it not to talk about the information he'd extracted because old Slytherin hates him and wants to warn people against him," said Narcissa. "He's helping me to learn Parseltongue now."

Fabian had been holding her hand, and dropped it as though it had burned him.

"Parseltongue? Narcissa, you stop learning that! It will corrupt you, only dark wizards use Parseltongue!" he cried.

"Don't talk nonsense," said Narcissa. "Salazar Slytherin is not a dark wizard."

"Oh? And what about his hatred of muggleborn?" said Fabian icily.

"He doesn't hate muggleborn."

"Of course he does! Everyone knows that!"

"'Everyone' then believes the lies that Tom Riddle put about, which is why he cursed the portrait."

"You've been possessed by the portrait!" Fabian jumped up. "I see what this is; you were a pure and innocent girl and the powers of darkness have arranged to have you corrupted as soon as I agreed to a betrothal with you, so they could take over a family of light!"

"Fabian, are you run mad?" Narcissa was shocked.

"No, I've regained my senses! And to think I was beginning to love you, too – well, I'm sorry for you, but I'm not having you in my family. The betrothal is off!" and he strode away.

Narcissa was too proud to burst into tears. She sat for a few minutes, and then got up and left the Three Broomsticks to head back towards the school. She was passing the Shrieking Shack when she paused, and changed direction towards it. A quick unlocking charm and she was inside, throwing herself onto the bed the Marauders had set up, sobbing her eyes out.

And shortly, two small arms were around her.

"Narcissa?" Remus' voice was concerned.

She turned, startled.

"Remus?"

"Full moon," he said. "What's wrong?"

Narcissa almost fobbed him off; he was only a little boy not long turned twelve, but something in his eyes told her that his sufferings had made him older in many ways. She sniffed hard, accepted the handkerchief he wordlessly presented to her, and stammered out what had happened.

"What a toerag!" declared Remus, angrily. "Well, he doesn't deserve you. Anyway, he's not a Marauder, so I guess he's not worthy anyway."

Narcissa opened her mouth to point out that most Marauders were much younger than she was, and then recalled that her sister Bellatrix was having to wait for her betrothed husband to leave school.

"Is that a proposal, Remus?" she asked.

Remus went very red.

"I … it could be," he said. "A lot depends on if Mr. Prince makes a proper cure. I say, Peter will be here soon, he's watching with me tonight. You … you might want to wash a bit."

Narcissa nodded.

"Thanks," she said. "You know, I might just stay here, if you and Peter don't mind; I don't especially want to run into Fabian."

Remus considered.

"Then you'd better leave after us, as he does run sometimes, because the creep deserves to worry about you not being in school," he said, in a hard, tight little voice. "And in the morning Peter and I will ask him where you are."

"Hello! What's going on?" Peter arrived. "Oh, Narcissa! Will you help me with my charms prep while Remus is howling at the moon?"

"OY," said Remus. "Fabian Prewett has been a big prick and upset Narcissa and we're going to make him believe tomorrow that he made her run away, to jerk his strings some more."

"Ok," said Peter equably, looking hopefully at Narcissa.

"Yes, I'll help," said Narcissa. "Thanks, for letting me stay."

She was curious to see the extent of Remus' change as well; the power of runes seemed to be considerable, and she was wishing it had been an elective she had taken.

"I could run back and let the others know that you are all right and get them to start quizzing Prewett," said Peter. "'Cos if Remus starts changing before I'm back, he'll have you."

Remus nodded.

"Good idea," he said.

He did indeed change before Peter returned, and grinned shakily at Narcissa. Peter burst back in, full of indignation.

"That prat Prewett has only been warning us Gryffindor Marauders to drop our friendship with a dark witch!" he said, indignantly.

"I hope the girls didn't reveal that they are naturally Parselmouths?" Narcissa looked scared.

"Nah, Severus told him he should maybe go and tell the headmaster that _he_ was a dark wizard, as Dumbeldore has also learned Parseltongue, and sanctioned Sev learning it as part of his ancient runes study, and when he wasn't inclined to believe him, Sev accused him of being a bully and demanded that he go see the head, and I asked 'and what have you done to Narcissa? Have you hexed her?' and he said he didn't know where she was or care, and McGonagall came in, to ask what the row was about, and I told her I thought Prewett had murdered you, Narcissa, because he'd gone mad and was bullying us over ancient rune studies. So he's up to his neck in it, because McGonagall carted him and Sev off to the head's office."

"Nice stirring," said Remus in his thickened, wolfie voice.

"I … no I'm not sorry for him, he wouldn't listen to rational explanations," said Narcissa.

"And if I can get a proper cure, I'll treat you better," said Remus.

OoOoOo

"So let me get this straight," said Dumbledore. "Narcissa Black told you she was learning Parseltongue so that she could help remove a curse on her house founder's portrait, and you as good as accused her of being Voldemort?"

"Well, Parselmouths are all dark wizards, we know that!" said Fabian, stubbornly.

"Mr. Prewett, Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth," said Dumbledore.

"Yes, and that proves it; he wants to murder all muggles and muggleborn," said Fabian.

"What insane notion is this?" demanded McGonagall. "Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor were the best of friends. You might as well say that Gryffindor was a dark wizard."

"Well wasn't he betrayed by Slytherin?"

"Mr. Prewett," said Dumbledore, "You've been listening to fairy tales. You might, however, wish to note that we do not have a house called Rabbit House for Babbity Rabbit and her cackling stump. It had not come to my notice until recently that the reason for the recent … problems … inside Slytherin House were not entirely due to the followers of Voldemort per se, but by the silencing of the portrait of Salazar Slytherin by Voldemort during his school years, so that nobody could counter the lies about muggleborn that Voldemort wished to promulgate. It is a prejudice held by many old families, alas, and he chose to make it one of his, ah, campaign issues. Probably because of being half-blood himself. It required Parseltongue to remove the curse as Voldemort was too arrogant to realise that what he acquired by inheritance could also be learned by others."

"But it corrupts anyone who uses it!" insisted Fabian.

"And I asked him if he thought you were a dark wizard, sir!" burst out Severus, "As you said you had learned it too!"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to say that he had not actually admitted it, and closed it again. If Tiberius' grandson was set upon by Prewett and his friends for being open about learning the language, Dumbledore preferred not to think what Tiberius might do.

"I learned it to counter Voldemort, as it seems Miss Black has done," said the Headmaster. "It is not inherently corrupting, Mr. Prewett; it is a language. Why, you might as well say that learning French will turn your socks to camembert cheese! I fear you owe Miss Black an apology. And … where is she?"

"I left her in the Three Broomsticks," said Fabian, sulkily. "I … of course I don't think you are a dark wizard sir, but …."

"There is no 'but' about it, Mr. Prewett," said Dumbeldore, sternly. "I will check if she has returned to Slytherin House, and if she is not, I will go myself to the Three Broomsticks. Really, my boy, I should have thought at your age, and as a prefect too, you would have had more sense than to believe such childish nonsense, and moreover to leave a witch of tender years unescorted in the village! It was on the understanding that you were more adult than that, that an evening pass was issued to you. Miss Black is a minor, and you are not."

Fabian flushed a dull red.

"And if anything has happened to Cissy, I'm going to hex you so hard you'll never stop your toenails calling you names as you walk!" said Severus, furiously, having been taken to the head's office before learning from Peter what had happened.

"A colourful sort of curse," murmured the headmaster. "Mr. Prince, I pray you will leave any discipline of Mr. Prewett to me. Mr. Prewett, I trust you will not be bullying Mr. Prince for his interest in runes which has led to him studying Parseltongue?"

"I … if it has your sanction, sir, it … there would be no reason to take issue with him," said Prewett.

"Fabian, he is twelve years old; there would be no reason for you, an adult, to _take issue_ with him in any case, but to tell another, wiser adult if you had any concerns," said McGonagall. "You have made me very ashamed of you."

"Go back to Gryffindor House and you will speak no more on this subject," said Dumbledore. "I will consider what to do, depending on how Miss Black is faring."

Fabian gulped.

"Yes, sir," he said, and retired abashed.


	25. Chapter 25

_thanks Guest, I thought hard about my take on Parseltongue, we know it can be learned unless Albus Dumbledore is a born Parselmouth which I doubt. he plainly undertstood the memory in the penseive of the encounter with the Gaunts. And yes, Fabian is being a prat. I was planning to write him having a bit of a hissy fit and then come round but the idiot had other ideas. His loss! Molly must have got it from somewhere... and as she's Fabian's sister, this is probably a family issue._

 **Chapter 25**

Narcissa watched as Peter and Remus joined the others on their run. Fabian was not with them, and she donned the invisibility cloak that James had given to Peter for her to use to slip back into school unnoticed. She gained her dormitory unseen, and slipped behind the curtains of her bed to rise when the bell went.

Her dormitory mates stared at her when she rose with them.

"Where have you been?" demanded Albertine Rosier.

"Asleep," said Narcissa.

"Everyone's been looking for you," said Albertine.

"Apparently not in the right place," said Narcissa. "Excuse me, I want to wash."

OoOoOo

Dumbledore greeted the runners.

"My dears, I … wonder if you have seen Narcissa Black?" he asked. He was glancing worriedly at Remus.

"She spent the night with me in the Shrieking Shack, where that bounder Prewett wouldn't find her," said Remus. Dumbledore looked horrified.

"But …"

"I was there as a chaperon," said Peter. "She helped me with my charms homework."

"I don't pose a danger to my friends with the runic help Sev has given me," said Remus, gently. "But it's a little embarrassing to have fur and a snout, even if I am more or less myself. So the Shack is a good refuge still."

Dumbledore's eyes flicked to Severus, who shrugged.

"My grandfather suggested some additional runes when I wrote to him in the autumn term," he said. "It's been working since November, when we perfected it. But Granddad hasn't worked out a cure yet," he added.

"Bless my soul!" said Dumbledore. "And where is Miss Black now?"

"She planned to slip back into her dormitory before the other lazy girls woke up," said Remus. "I don't think that she can be made to go through with marriage to a man who becomes violent over her linguistic studies."

"No, quite so," said Dumbledore. "Severus, did you know last night that she was safe?"

"No, I didn't," said Severus. "I was really worried until I got back and James told me Peter had passed on a message. And I still think Fabian deserves to have his toenails hexed to abuse him, I thought he was a good sort, and then he throws a bigoted hissy fit like this! It's very unsettling when people who are supposed to be good guys turn out to be … unsatisfactory," he hastily amended what he had been going to say.

"Mr. Prewett is ill-informed and misguided, but I am sure he is a good sort for all that," said Dumbledore.

"A man who abandons a young girl in a public place having insulted her and upset her?" asked Remus, in a hard voice. "If he'd been our age I could get that he might grow out of it, but he's already middle aged, he's taking NEWTs this year! And if he makes Narcissa fail her OWLs for being bullied by him, I hope her father sues him!"

"Dear me, I would hope there is no chance of that," said Dumbledore.

"Well, I would think it was quite possible," said Severus. "Someone who has fallen in love and then found the one they loved has betrayed their trust is pretty vulnerable, sir, I should think."

Dumbledore paled. The boy had no idea how wounding those words were.

"Let us hope her feelings were not so deeply engaged," he said, worried.

"She said 'when you have let yourself love someone and then they change, what do you do?' to me," said Remus.

Dumbledore sighed.

"I will speak with her, and I will hope to help her come to terms with her … loss before the exams," he said. "Of course, they might make up a lovers' tiff."

They stared at him.

"Having your boyfriend accuse you of being a dark witch is way past a lovers' tiff," said Petunia.

"Dear me, yes, I suppose so," said Dumbledore, sadly. "Well, well, you are good friends to Miss Black."

OoOoOo

"Miss Black, I have explained a few facts to Mr. Prewett," said Dumbledore.

Narcissa lifted her chin.

"Did it take a brace and bit to open his thick skull to get them in, or merely a pickaxe?" she asked.

"Now, my dear, Mr. Prewett is not entirely unreasonable, and I am sure that his concerns were merely for your safety in using magic he did not understand."

"His _concerns_ , headmaster, were that I would taint his family. There was no concern for my safety, nor indeed, any concern to listen to facts from me. Fabian Prewett was scared I might contaminate his precious light family and be a tool of Riddle to do so. He broke the betrothal, and I have already written to my father to ask that he sue for wergild* for so doing. I am not, however, going to be talked into resuming something in which trust appears to be an issue. Next time he might start beating on me for something I have done that I could not have realised would annoy him, instead of just lowering over me. He has anger management problems, and I have had a lucky escape."

Dumbledore sighed.

"It would have been nice to have seen a happy marriage between a member of the family Black and a more liberal family," he said.

"It wouldn't have been nice to have been the battered Mrs. Prewett," said Narcissa. "What other weird and wonderful superstitions might he hold? Would he force any daughter he has to marry a muggle, regardless of her feelings, if she was born in May because of the superstition that May witches marry muggles? Or decide that I looked at him the wrong way which meant that I was ill-wishing him? I don't particularly want to find out the hard way what bigotted nonsense his precious 'light' family has filled his head with. Because it seems to be just as much unfounded and unmitigated tripe as any of the anti-muggle sentiment to be found in some traditionalist families, you know."

Dumbledore opened his mouth, and shut it again. The prejudice against Parselmouths was too telling a case in point to deny, as was the determined assumption that all Slytherin were born to be Death Eaters.

"Well, my dear, I hope you will not permit it to affect your school work," he said.

"I shan't. I just want to wash the taste of him out of my mouth and spend time working which I had wasted on snogging the creep," said Narcissa.

"Probably wise," said Dumbledore.

Narcissa retired with as much dignity as she could muster, pulling a face that she must endure the holidays without most of her friends, since they would all be going home, and she would be staying to revise for her exams. At least Malfoy was not such a pain these days. She hoped he would not raise the issue of betrothal with her, now she was out of the protective betrothal to Fabian. It would not do to be labelled a jilt, and even though Fabian had broken it off, Narcissa was under no illusions about how easy it was for a girl to be labelled a jilt, or even a scarlet woman. And she doubted if Remus would continue to want to marry her as he got older, even if he did have a rather sweet crush on her at present. If he did … well his condition was no real hardship to bear, if it could not be cured, though one had to worry about offspring. Well, her biggest worry at the moment was her OWL exams.

OoOoOo

Severus came into the main sitting room on the last Saturday before term started to find his grandfather dancing a jig.

"Uh, Granddad?" he said.

Tiberius grabbed his hands and danced around with him.

"I have it!" he crowed.

"Is it catching?" quipped Severus.

"The reverse!" Tiberius chortled. "Time to send an owl to the Lupins to tell them to bring their son."

Severus gasped.

"You have a cure?"

"I do, and it's in two parts, a potion and a chant using runes and ritual. But once Remus is cured, I think I will be able to use his blood as part of a potion to cure others without any further need for ritual, and the great thing is that his monthly chanting has begun the ritual for me!"

"Great!" Severus hugged his grandfather. "When are you going to do it?"

"Thursday. It's the new moon, and so the ritually strongest time."

"It's the day after we go back to school, Granddad."

"Then either the boy can be prevented from going back to school by some ailment, or I shall have to bring his parents in to Hogwarts secretly. I don't plan to involve Albus."

"Mr. Filch knows more about the castle than anyone, I wager; he will know somewhere we can do ritual. I think our potions lab behind Gregory the Smarmy is a little cramped."

"Yes, I imagine so. Brilliant, my boy. Argus Filch will be a great ally."

OoOoOo

Argus Filch was a staunch ally to the man who had given him magic, and the children who had defended him.

"It's called the 'come and go room' by the elves," he said. "They use it to store things. But it's called the Room of Requirements, and now I am able to do magic, I can open it too. You walk up and down in front of where it comes, and wish for what you need."

Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were thin, worried looking people, though Severus suspected that they looked less strained than they had before Remus was able to control his werewolf nature. They were each holding Remus by a hand, and not even Peter scoffed. Indeed, he looked wistful.

"Grandfather," whispered Severus, "Peter's only got a mother, and she's sick. Do you think she could have some rooms in our house? Our elves could easily look after her, and she'd be company for mother."

Tiberius smiled at him.

"A wise man takes care of his friends and their family," he said. "I will have Tilly arrange it."

The Marauders were all skipping lunch in order to have the best possible time to perform the ritual, and they quickly took up their places in a circle about Remus, as Tiberius wrote runes about him. He gave Remus a potion to drink.

"It contains powdered moonstone inscribed with the runes that help you, mandragora, boomslang skin prepared with silver salts, which is not a form of silver which will harm you, and other minor items," he told the boy.

"I trust you, sir," said Remus, swallowing it.

Tiberius walked around him, going over the chalk runes with a stick of what appeared to be solid silver, which melted into the runes as he chanted. And then he nodded to the children to start the basic chant Remus had used, and began to add to their basic meaures a rich rolling chant in some ancient language Severus had not yet encountered. Remus started sweating and trembling, and fur grew and receded over his body, changes half starting and then returning to normal as tears of agony ran from his eyes. Narcissa had been given the job of laying a calming hand on the shoulders of the boy's parents.

"This is much what happens each month, more extreme, but he suffers around five minutes pain while some change happens and then he is fine," she said. "We've all seen it, been there for him. That the fur and shape change is being driven back is hopeful."

And then Remus was collapsing on the floor, and Tiberius sank to his knees.

"Revellaspell?" Tiberius croaked.

Narcissa pointed her wand.

"There is no werewolf in this room," she said.

"Is … is that silver?" Remus croaked.

"Pure silver," said Tiberius.

"Then …" Remus reached out to touch the silver runes, and his mother gasped. The boy examined his finger tips.

"No blisters!" he cried. "I … I really am cured!"

His mother burst into tears and flung herself forward to hug her son. And then everyone was hugging.

Mr. Lupin was pumping Tiberius' hand.

"I don't even know how to begin to thank you," he said.

"There is no need to do so. Anything for my grandson's friends," said Tiberius. He grinned. "And I shall enjoy the fame of being the co-inventer of the cure."

"Who else was involved then, Granddad?" asked Severus.

"Why, you, my boy, of course," said Tiberius. "You had the idea that it should be done and did the initial runic research."

"It wasn't much," said Severus.

"It was the base; and without a base there would have been no cure," said Tiberius. "Now hurry up all of you or you'll miss afternoon lessons."

* Yes, I know it should be wifgild but I'm assuming that the formalised payment for a transgression has probably all been swept together into one word as Ancient Runes does not seem to be a popular study in the wizarding world and they probably don't read Old English readily.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

"Are you ready, Miss Evans?" Salazar Slytherin's portrait asked Petunia. Petunia swallowed hard and nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"You remember every syllable of my basilisk's name?"

"Sthassarrassaarethadassaheshah" said Petunia. "One syllable for every century."

"Good. It's taken me no little time to learn his full name including the syllables added since my death from the whispering of the stones, but it is important. Names are power, and with his name you can persuade him to obey you," said Salazar. "Riddle never had that from me, which is why all he could do was unleash Sthass – he was happy to be called that – on an ill-informed killing spree." He considered. "If you got that unfortunate child's bones, and could persuade Sthass to cry for her, she might even be returned to life with the power of his tears."

Petunia gasped.

"What if she was cremated?"

"Then you're out of luck." The portrait shrugged. "I think cremation is a more modern method though."

"It's a secondary consideration, however, next to destroying the horcruces," said Tiberius. "And if er, Sthass can be made aware of how things have changed, then perhaps chatting to him in the future might be an option. We have the side of an ox as a peace offering to him, and we all have mirror shades to prevent him looking into our eyes even accidentally."

"Yes, but he can turn the power of his killing glare off once he knows you are friends," said Slytherin.

"That's all very well, but I'm not about to risk these children if he's not listening right off," said Tiberius. "Trust your allies but keep blackmail material on them anyway."

Slytherin chuckled.

"Spoken like a true Slytherin!" he said. "I hope you can restore that girl, because Riddle used the Imperius on a girl called Olive Hornby, not I think that it took much pressure, to ride the girl until she fled to the girl's lavatorium to cry, so that he could kill her with the basilisk's gaze. I object to my familiar being used as a weapon."

"It was deliberate, then, not an accident that she was there?" Lily was horrified.

"The brat boasted of it to me, as a test of the power of the basilisk," said Slytherin, grimly.

"I have a thought," said Severus, suddenly. "If this girl Myrtle was killed by the basilisk at the orders of Riddle, would bringing her back to life destroy any horcrux he made with her death?"

Tiberius stared.

"He was only sixteen years old then," he whispered. "Could he be so deeply steeped in wickedness already?"

"Yes," said Slytherin. "He was that evil so young. And an act of pure good to undo murder would, I am sure, weaken a horcrux, even if it did not destroy it. And I know what that horcrux was, too; he was always writing in some kind of journal. And after the chamber of secrets was shut, it vanished. He hid it somewhere. But I suspect he has kept it with him."

"Then he will know if we can strike against it by restoring Myrtle," said Tiberius.

"Not if he has put it safely somewhere, hidden from immediate view, lest any of his followers see it as something to use to gain ascendancy over him," said Narcissa. "Those of his followers in Slytherin House are always jockeying for position, and let's just say they don't follow him for love, but out of fear and ambition. He must be well aware that any one of them would readily use leverage against him for better position."

"A good point," Slytherin nodded.

"Then I must see about disinterring the bones of, er, Myrtle Warren," said Tiberius.

OoOoOo

The Marauders were unwontedly subdued when they went to open the Chamber of Secrets.

Ssss _open_ ssss hissed Petunia, and the sink with its snaky decoration sank and swung to one side, leaving a large pipe, large enough for a man to slide down.

"Why did Slytherin put it in a loo?" asked James.

"Don't you listen?" snapped Lily. "It was a simple trapdoor in his day, it was the enlargements that made this the site of a toilet, and one of his descendants hid it with the sink."

"Oh, I missed that." James was unabashed. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Boys!" she muttered.

"I got it first time," said Severus.

"Yes, but you're out of the league of most boys, Sev," said Lily.

"Sev, I don't want to go first," whispered Petunia. It had been agreed that only those who could manage Parseltongue should go down initially.

Severus sighed.

"Now if I'd only let myself be hatted into Slytherin House I could have claimed constructive cowardice," he quipped as he climbed into the tube, and let go, letting himself be rushed down towards the bottom, like an insane muggle helter-skelter. Petunia and Lily exchanged glances as the thought made him sing the Beatles' song of that name, the sound floating eerily up.

"Go on, Tuney, you learned the name, the row he's making will wake any Basilisk," said Lily.

Petunia gulped, and followed Severus.

She found herself in a damp corridor, lit by Severus' wand, a massive statue of Salazar Slytherin ahead, and pillars entwined by snakes all around.

Sssssssssssssssssssss

" _Sthassarrassaarethadassaheshah I call on you. By my blood, I invoke you. By right, I request your aid. I have an offering of food."_

Out of the mouth of the statue of Slytherin issued a head, with a proud crest not unlike that of a peacock, but in blood red. Behind the head, yard after yard of flowing snake poured out of the hole like a river. Petunia gasped, and Lily and Severus took her hand on each side, and Narcissa, who had followed, put her arms around the younger children. The massive snake flowed forward, and semi-transparent eyelids covered its deadly eyes. It sniffed the side of ox.

" _I come to one of my blood. The offering is good. You are of my blood and you are of the muggle blood also. But you are marked."_

" _I am marked by the house of Gaunt which is of the House of Slytherin. I bring messages from the voice of Salazar Slytherin about the false heir who let you out last time, who betrayed Slytherin's wishes. The girl who died was not a scoffer or destroyer, but in this modern age, the habit of adoption of muggle born wizards and witches has been forgotten because there are so many."_

" _I have killed an innocent?"_

" _Yes, and Slytherin says that if you will weep for her, your tears might restore a fine young witch."_

It was hard to see through the mirror shades, and Petunia was a bit nervous of looking at the basilisk's eyes. They welled with tears.

Severus however, took the risk, removing his shades, and walked forward with the vial prepared to catch the tears.

" _We are grateful to you for helping us right this wrong and clearing the name of your wizard,"_ he said.

" _You are not of his blood, or not recently."_

" _I have learned the tongue to help my friends who are of his blood."_

" _I am much moved by that. Godric Gryffindor would not learn the tongue; he said it was because it was evil but if you ask me, it was because he was too stupid."_

" _We are in his House, so I will not comment on my Founder,"_ said Severus, firmly.

" _My apologies, young one. I will not insult your Founder. He and my wizard were good friends over most things, until they fell out over how much to trust muggles."_

" _I suspect our group of friends might side with Slytherin on that, you don't trust people unless they show you they can be trusted,"_ Severus remarked dryly.

" _Indeed. But how will I know which muggle born are to be attacked if they are not marked these days?"_ the basilisk shed a few more tears which Severus caught.

" _There are none in this place able to attack us anymore; there are better wards than there were when you were the guardian,"_ said Severus.

" _All of us here of muggle blood want to be a part of the wizarding world"_ put in Lily. " _we are all friends. If any come from without, we will call upon you; and such as the one who called you before are the ones to fear."_

" _Yesssss, for he has made me betray my oath to protect wizardkind! When I see him again, I will bite him!"_

" _Good idea, Sthass! But it won't kill him unless we destroy some of his dark artefacts; for he has horcruces."_ Severus spoke again.

" _Excuse me? You speak of more than one of those accursed items? How many then?"_

" _He wants 6 but we think he has only four."_

" _Only? You must find them and destroy them, so much soul splintering will make him insane!"_

" _We hope that restoring the witch will destroy the one he made with her death when he used you as a weapon,"_ said Severus.

The huge snake convulsed.

" _A weapon? For his foul filthy magic? I have been USED?"_

" _He fooled Lord Slytherin for a while too,"_ Severus said, sadly. _"Now he seeks to tear wizarding society apart."_

" _I will rend him limb from limb, when you have destroyed these things. Ah, you want my venom."_

" _If you would be so kind,"_ said Severus.

" _Boy, you have courage. One drop on your skin would burn you."_

" _I trust you to be careful,"_ said Severus.

Petunia shuddered, glad that Severus had volunteered. She was not sure she did trust the big snake to be careful.

Severus however had steady potioneer's hands and he held the flasks steady as the basilisk, able to produce poison out of its rage, let it run down its fangs for him to catch. Lily stoppered each one as he passed it back, with carefully made glass stoppers.

" _I will give you enough venom for six, in case the restoration is not enough or he has made more,"_ hissed Sthass. " _I do not like betrayers."_ His third eyelid flickered for a moment, and Severus looked quickly away. " _My apologies, little one, in my anger I almost forgot my control. Let me know how things progress. I will doze but not sleep until you have destroyed the artefacts of this betrayer so I may destroy him."_

" _We shall bring you food to sustain your wakefulness,"_ said Severus.

" _I appreciate that. Rats are such pitiful sources of food,"_ replied the great snake. " _I wish you good luck."_ And with that it seized the side of beef and tossed it into the air to swallow whole.

The four children worked on not trembling at its power, and retreated, climbing up the ropes let down by their friends, vial of tears and flasks of venom charmed to be unbreakable, and nestled carefully in a basket also lowered for that purpose.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

"So, it went well?" asked James.

"It was terrifying," said Petunia.

"The kids were fantastic," said Narcissa. "Severus handled most of the negotiations, but Tuney got it started very well, and Lily made a good speech too. He wants to know how we do as we destroy horcruces."

Myrtle popped out of a tap.

"It's a nasty monster," she said.

"No it isn't," said Petunia. "Sthass gave us his tears because killing you shouldn't have happened and we are going to try to bring you back to life."

Myrtle stared, then she squealed with delight.

"Oh! I know it's impossible but thank you for caring!" she said.

"Impossible isn't a word I keep in my lexicon," said Severus, stubbornly. "And when we restore you, it's another blow to the one who really had you killed, who used poor Sthass!"

"Whatever it takes, we will restore you, Myrtle," said Phil. "You've always been kind to me, when I've been hiding from nargles."

They hurried back to Tiberius' quarters, and Narcissa removed the portrait of Slytherin from the wall in the common room again, to take him along.

"I'll try not to get any of this on your portrait," said Tiberius. He held the flask with tongs, and started to pour the venom onto the locket. The locket screamed and all the children clapped their hands to their ears. It smoked, and the frame shook as it tried to escape the deadly stream.

And then it was melting, and the screams died thinly away.

"Gods and spirits," said Sirius, wiping a film of sweat from his brow. He was not the only one to do so.

"Well that's one which won't be there for him," said Tiberius, with grim satisfaction. "I'll get a facsimile to mend your frame, Founder, so nobody notices, and I'll cover that burned section with gaze-repelling charms for the moment."

"I feel much, much better," said Slytherin. "I am in the debt of you all."

"And we shan't cease until we have them all," said Tiberius. "Miss Warren's bones next, I think."

"Are you going to tell the headmaster?" asked Severus.

"That we've destroyed one horcrux? Yes. That we plan to bring Myrtle Warren back to life? No. It might not work, and moreover, she will be the object of too much gossip if it gets out, and that nosy old codger will let it out."

"Then adopt her as a Prince and have her come in as a cousin you have found," said James.

"That's a good idea," said Tiberius. "I expect she will want to see her parents, and I suppose I need to talk to them too. Well, I will let you all know of the outcome of that," he added. "And now you had better disperse before anyone misses the lot of you."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

"You know why the Death Eaters have so much support, don't you?" said Lily, as the Marauders lounged by the lake.

"Because they don't like the erosion of tradition," said Narcissa.

"Yes, and I think it would be a jolly good idea if muggleborns like us were contacted as soon as we exhibited accidental magic, and were offered association with established families, and education in wizarding tradition," said Lily. "Like it used to be in the old days."

"I suppose there are so many muggle born now," said Narcissa. "But if you ask me, any sensible pure blood family would jump at it, to build up a power base."

"Slytherin to the last," laughed Remus.

"Certainly; nothing wrong with a quid pro quo," said Narcissa. "We do, however, have a problem."

"What's that?" asked Lily.

"Dumbledore. I get that he wants to extend the wizarding world to anyone who can cast spells, but he's totally opposed to any tradition and he favours muggleborn over pure bloods, and makes it plain that he hates all Slytherin and favours the more boorish of the Gryffindors. He couldn't drive a rift through wizarding society more efficiently if he was doing it deliberately, because he's making pure bloods choose Tommy Riddle, who promises a return to tradition.

Severus sat bolt upright.

"Hold on, Cissy, are you suggesting he's doing it on purpose, that he's a secret agent of Riddle?"

"No, I … Merlin, that never occurred to me!" Narcissa was aghast. "No, I don't think he is, I think he's just too keen to snowplough ahead on full steam to integrate muggleborn that he hasn't thought about the implications. I don't think the arrogant old fool has any concept that other people might have ideas that differ from him, or if he does, they must be 'wrong'.

"Then he's a threat to the peace of our world, even if he is well-meaning," said Petunia. "He seems kindly enough, but he's quite ruthless."

Narcissa looked at her in surprise.

"What makes you say that?"

Petunia blushed.

"Before Mr. Prince awakened my magic, I wrote to Dumbledore and asked if I could come to school with my sister and at least study theory. He wrote me a letter which was kindly enough on the surface, but it was a definite and firm brush-off. You'd think he'd be keen to have muggle relatives understand the wizarding world, wouldn't you?"

"It is one of the things that causes divisiveness," said Narcissa. "The muggle born have a choice of two worlds, and their loyalties are seen to be torn between their family and their art."

"Then the sensible thing would be to involve the muggle parents more, and find, where it is possible, jobs for them within the wizarding world," said Severus. "Or at least to join social groups inside the wizarding world. My mum got my dad interested in Quidditch, and I know they aren't the most ideal parents to cite, it's only because he hasn't been welcomed by wizarding folk that has made him scared of the whole world."

"That's a good point," said Narcissa. "Many muggleborn, they say, though as 'they' often are a nebulous group, it may be wrong, are alienated from their families as their parents see their offspring able to do things that frighten them."

"We need more dialogue. Perhaps Granddad can invite your parents and the Evans family to a garden party."

"I'm not sure how well my parents would accept that; I'm afraid they are quite prejudiced. If Andi hadn't run off with Ted Tonks, I would have been as prejudiced. In fact, I was almost ready to hate muggleborn because he stole my sister. But you two had exquisite manners and it cut through my preconceived ideas. Though to be honest, none of us have been that influenced by our parents as we were raised by House Elves, as many pure bloods are, which is how Andi was able to break free. And …" she grimaced, "How Bella managed to make herself into the school broom once she'd met Tom Riddle. She'd have preferred to marry him than Rodolphus, but he won't take an official consort so she's relying on Rodolphus to turn a blind eye to her having an affair with her adored Master. Not even the familiarity of Tom, she calls him 'Master' and revels in grovelling to him." Her voice dripped with distaste.

"Ughh," said Lily.

"Exactly," Narcissa agreed. "But right now, my family wouldn't be ready to consider such a new concept. Though they don't like Bella's attitude any more than they like Andi's, and I haven't been reproved for calling her 'Tommy's little house elf', and she got into trouble for casting the cruciatus curse on me."

The others gasped. For one's own sister to do something like that was horrific, and Petunia and Lily found themselves holding hands, and silently vowing that nothing would make them hurt each other.

"Well, perhaps one day they will open up," said Severus. "When we've reminded people that muggleborn used to be adopted by pureblood families to learn the traditions. But in the meantime, the more muggleborn who learn the traditions, the better, because they wouldn't hardly like it if we turned up in their society, insisting on their customs."

"That really puts it into perspective, Sev," said Lily. "I was reading about marriage customs, and the reason there's not usually divorce in the wizarding world is because traditional marriages come with unbreakable vows, because before anyone gets married, heaps of divination is done to check compatibility. If wizards lived in muggle society and pointed and giggled because muggle women don't have the revellaspell cast to check they are virgins when entering a betrothal, and started passing remarks about scarlet women over people who choose to live together not marry, or who have relationships before marriage, they'd be scragged. And there's no difference between that and those of us who are muggle born who disrespect wizarding custom. When in Rome, do thou as the Romans."

"Though it's hard to change completely. Which is why Mum was disowned and yet has never divorced Dad, because to her, it's improper even if she lives apart from him," said Severus. "But if he asked for a divorce she would probably give him one, because though it would mortify her, it's part of his custom."

OoOoOo

Tiberius disappeared over the next weekend, and looked a little grim when he returned.

"I've got bad news for Myrtle," he said.

"She was cremated?" said Narcissa in dismay.

"No, I have her bones, but her parents were … not co-operative," said Tiberius. "I'm going to break it to her, but you girls might be nice and go chat to her, will you?"

"Certainly," said Narcissa, and the others nodded too.

Tiberius made his way to the toilet on the third floor.

"Myrtle?" he called.

Myrtle's head popped out of a sink.

"Hello?" she said.

"Myrtle, I have good and bad news," said Tiberius. "I have your bones."

"And the bad news? My parents are dead?"

Tiberius grimaced.

"Not that simple," he said. "A few years after you died, they adopted a war orphan, and they have convinced themselves she is their only daughter. Your father called me a charlatan fraudster trying to re-open old wounds and play upon their loss, and that even if I had found some, er, young woman prepared to pretend to be his daughter, he would never accept such an imposter."

Myrtle stared for a moment, and then burst into noisy sobs. Tiberius reached vaguely towards her to pat the region of her shoulder but she disappeared back down the sink and suddenly all the toilets started flushing and overflowing. Tiberius beat a hasty retreat. Teenage tantrums made him nervous even when there was a good reason for them. Better to send the girls down when Myrtle had had a chance to regain some equilibrium. He grimaced. Hopefully she would not be as lacrimose when she had a body and a new family. It was well known that ghosts tended to be stuck in a loop of the emotions they had been undergoing at the moment of their death, Nick de Mimsy-Porpington being an exception to this, in managing to be cheerful most of the time, his natural Gryffindor effervescence overcoming the agony of a botched beheading. Tiberius found himself humming the Gilbert and Sullivan song from the 'Mikado' about how the eponymous Mikado had decreed in terms succinct that those who flirted, leered or winked, unless conubially linked should forthwith be beheaded. Whilst a little harsh, the immediate corollary of seduction or false promise being thus punished did satisfy his Slytherin sense of order. But it would be tactless to be singing such a song if he ran into Nick, and really he needed the castle ghosts in agreement that a little girl used to make a horcrux should be returned to life if at all possible. The Bloody Baron would agree as Salazar Slytherin had suggested it, and he planned to get Phil Lovegood to debate it with the Grey Lady. Nick and the Fat Friar were at least good natured.

At least the rejection by Myrtle's parents made the ceremony easier in some respects. He had planned to ask for blood from Myrtle's parents, but as he was going to be adopting her as a Prince, it meant he could use his own blood. He would need a blood ritual to adopt her as his kindred anyway, and that was why the old ways were being eroded. That idiot Dippet had somehow managed to persuade everyone but the most traditional of families that blood magic was somehow tainted with darkness.

He scowled as he heard faint moans, and swept round the corner.

The huddle on the floor was Lucius Malfoy, and there were sounds of running feet.

Tiberius knelt beside the boy.

"Who?" he asked.

Malfoy groaned.

"The Lestrange brothers, Rosier and Mulciber primus," said Lucius. "Because I refused to go with them to meet their precious dark lord."

"Good lad," said Tiberius. "Is he so contumelius as to come into Hogsmeade then?"

"Yes, but not without bodyguards," said Malfoy. "Don't go after him, sir, he'll kill you, and I might not like your grandson but I owe you for showing me how to stay out of this farce."

"You might not like him, but you are going to have to work with him," said Tiberius, inscribing runes of healing around Lucius. Lucius glanced at them.

"I'm not getting married, sir," he said.

Tiberius laughed.

"Runes of fertility, renewal, binding and strength are just as valid for healing as they are for binding a marriage and ensuring offspring," he said. "If you had learned ancient runes you would have known this."

"Will you teach me?"

Tiberius hesitated.

"Yes, I will," he said. "But only on the understanding that you will listen to me when I tell you that runes can awaken the suppressed magic in squibs, and can draw out the hidden heritance of muggles who hold blood of wizarding lines to awaken them to magic if they are close to being muggle born; and that thus the muggle born are of our blood as much as half-bloods."

Lucius Malfoy gasped. It helped that the jangling nerves tortured by the cruciatus curse were starting to dull to an ache, the pain dissipating as Tiberius drew out the runes. Tiberius chanted, and Lucius sat up straight.

"What are you saying, sir?"

"Something that your father is a trifle too limited to accept, but that you might just have the brains to understand," said Tiberius. "My grandson made friends with a muggleborn witch. He asked me to see if her sister's magic was suppressed. It was. And I have made the discovery that those two witches are descendants of Slytherin himself, through a Gaunt squib a century ago. Which proves that squibs pass on their heritance."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you owe me, Malfoy. And you can repay me by studying heritance along with runes, and backing me up when I am ready to try to re-institute the custom of the great houses adopting the muggleborn and teaching them proper tradition and ways. It's fallen into disuse because of the insistence that all blood magic is dark. You are a clever lad. Consider how much more powerful House Malfoy would be if you only had muggleborn allies too, who would give their all for their kin because their kin gives them everything. What more sensible than to have holdings in muggle businesses as well as wizarding ones?"

Lucius considered.

"I've been a fool in the last few years," he said. "My father is a traditionalist, which I respect, but I thought that Lord …"

"Not his name, boy, he can hear it," Tiberius warned. Malfoy nodded.

"That the dark lord offered a return to the old ways. That it would remove the muggleborn and we would go back to being pure and hidden. But Dumbledore has built himself an army of trained and loyal muggleborn, hasn't he? And what better than to subvert, train and own them, rather than to kill them. Especially if they do bear our heritance."

"Now, my boy, you are thinking like a true Slytherin not like a spoilt brat who wants to lash out at those whom you see as less than you. I mean, really, kicking a cat? A man does not do that."

Malfoy was suffused with a dull flush.

"Or a squib, I suppose," he muttered.

"A man knows what he should do," said Tiberius.

Malfoy pulled a face.

"It will be hard making an apology to Filch," he said.

"Easy things are not worth having," said Tiberius. "Filch is a great ally. He knows what goes on in the castle, and it isn't just his cat. He listens to the portraits, and the statues, and the house elves. As does the headmaster, but Filch knows it first."

"Do you side with the headmaster, sir?"

"Against Tommy Riddle? Yes. But never make the mistake of thinking that I trust him. He is not fair to Slytherins, because he is as full of prejudice in his own way as you have been, and that means he is a dangerous old fool because he has not grown up and shed his prejudices. But he is a very powerful dangerous old fool. Keep that in mind and keep smiling at him."

"Yes, sir, I will. Thank you." Malfoy nodded, dusted himself down and went on his way.

Tiberius reflected that this had been an unexpected but fortuitous development.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

"Would it not be easier to brew a potion in which the bone and the flesh and blood offering and tears are blended for the ghost to inhabit?" asked Severus, with a frown.

"I am no mean potioneer but I am more familiar with using runes," said Tiberius.

"I would have thought that inscribing the runes round a cauldron would make it easier," Severus argued. "What are you using as flesh?"

"Her mother had a breast cancer scare a few years back," said Tiberius. "I sifted through all the medical records. There was a thing called a biopsy, a barbaric way muggles have of testing flesh by crudely removing some because their diagnostic machines are not so subtle as the revellaspell and specific diagnostic spells. The samples are kept for a while. I had Tilly extract them. Being specific female flesh it is better than anything from her father. She carries enough of his heritance in her bones to make sure her appearance is not altered as the flesh grows onto the bones. Actually using a potion might be surer, but I will need to be very careful as I am not as good a potioneer as I think you will be, my boy."

"Phil is a competent potioneer, and Narcissa told us that Pureblood women pass down healing and other potions that are family secrets," said Severus. Tiberius hid a smile, since the boy had no idea that most of the 'other potions' involved fertility.

"I was thinking of adopting the Evans girls into our house as well as Myrtle so that House Prince carries the blood of Slytherin through them," he said. "I know you already look on them as sisters. And then I will ask Eileen to show them the family secrets."

Severus nodded eagerly.

"They are like sisters to me," he said. "We Marauders are all like siblings."

Tiberius smiled. He had cast runes for his own satisfaction, and he could see that in the future some of the Marauders would be likely to pair up, and he wanted to be able to offer proper betrothal arrangements for his granddaughters elect. The time would come when Riddle would move against the parents of muggleborn and he wanted his Parselmouth protégés to be aware that he would personally protect their parents. It would prevent them from being distracted if they had to milk more venom from Sthass and stand against Death Eaters.

Phil had enlisted the aid of the Grey Lady with regards to upsetting the order of putting a ghost back into a body.

The moment the word 'horcrux' had entered the conversation, the young Ravenclaw had the full attention of his house ghost. Once she understood that the castle guardian had been misused to make a deliberate killing to power such an evil thing, and that young Xenophilus had spoken to the portrait of the Slytherin Founder and learned that the girl's return to life should damage the horcrux she took her not inconsiderable talents at oratory to talk for three straight days to the other castle ghosts to both persuade them to agree and to swear silence outside of the ghostly community and those involved in the ritual. Helena Ravenclaw had few illusions over the concept that Dumbledore would place a ukaze on the ritual if he knew about it. The ghosts were supposed to report the happenings in the school to the headmaster, but they had their own free will, and might make up their own minds.

OoOoOo

Lucius was happy that his apology to Argus Filch had gone better than expected. The ex squib had been wary of him, but Lucius explained glibly that he had let himself be talked into nonsensical ideas by those of his associates who were hoping to be Death Eaters, and had been stupid enough to want to impress the older ones. They ended up drinking tea together, and had found that they agreed on a surprising number of subjects. Lucius admitted that at the time, he would have chosen to be flogged over spending a week in Gryffindor House but that it had been surprisingly informative. He offered Filch friendship as compensation for having behaved so badly, and was pleased that the caretaker accepted it as recompense. A Malfoy could do much for the man; and equally, having knowledge about what was going on in the castle would help Lucius.

It was a pity he had lost his chance with Narcissa Black. Well, there were other pureblood witches, and half blood for that matter, who would, for being of less prominent family, be more grateful for his name and kin.

But not Dolly Umbridge.

Not without more danger pay than she was ever likely to muster for a dowry.

Narcissa found that she was more concerned about Myrtle Warren than she was about her OWLs, which actually meant she was sufficiently relaxed about her exams that she found them quite easy. Melliflua Parkinson had hysterics after charms, when she had shattered her dinner plate into a million pieces and Narcissa had just smiled all the way through and performed all that was asked of her. Equally Niobe Crabbe had burst into tears when her teapot bit the examiner in transfigurations and laid a turd from under the handle. Narcissa kept on smiling.

Meanwhile Tiberius had had the inspiration of asking The Grey Lady about using a potion for the restoration of Myrtle, and found the ghost's pithy suggestions very useful. He prepared carefully, including the careful inscribing of runes of Ingwaz and Berkano and other subsidiary runes around the cauldron. Myrtle was almost bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Mr. Prince," said Petunia, urgently, "I think Sthass should be here. And if he can cry directly into the cauldron it would be better."

"You have a connection with him that I do not; I will not deny him," said Tiberius.

This time Petunia happily went down the tube on her own, and to the amazement of Tiberius, returned riding behind the gigantic head of the snake.

Myrtle squealed and disappeared into a toilet.

"Come out, Myrtle! Sthass is sorry! He thought you were an enemy," said Petunia.

Myrtle emerged, warily. Sthass bowed his great head before her and hissed.

"He said he will help to put right the wrong he has been made to do," translated Petunia.

And trying not to be intimidated by the presence of a basilisk, even one with his deadly eyes hooded, Tiberius brewed, chanting the formula that would add to the power of the potion, adding Myrtle's bones, her mother's flesh and his own blood.

"In, young Myrtle," he said, and the little ghost zipped into the caudron. The basilisk bowed over the steaming liquid and his tears ran freely into the cauldron where they turned the mixture achingly white. There was a squeal, and Myrtle stood up and flung her arms around the big snake's neck.

Ssss _I can speak too!_ Ssss she hissed happily. And then she looked down at herself and gave a horrified squeal. "I don't have anything on and there are _boys_ here!" she yelped.

Narcissa came forward with a robe and Myrtle slithered gratefully into it.

And Sthass bowed once more, and with a farewell hiss, disappeared back down into his lair.

"And now we smuggle you out of the castle to my home," said Tiberius. "And my granddaughter will begin teaching you the proper etiquette for a young lady of a prominent house."

Myrtle pulled a face.

"Why do I have to learn all that?" she asked.

"Myrtle, before you came to school, would you have liked people, perhaps foreigners fleeing Nazi Germany, being rude to you, laughing at the way you do things?" asked Tiberius.

"Of course not!" said Myrtle.

"Well, my dear, you should realise that the refusal of muggle born witches and wizards to learn the ways of the world in which they live is quite as rude as the refusal of some foreigners to learn the language of the country which gives them succour, or to comment unfavourably on the customs of the world which permits them to live in freedom," said Tiberius. "I am well acquainted with the muggle world, which is how Severus' mother came to meet his father, so I understand what I am talking about. You are a witch, and unless you choose to give up your magic and live as a muggle, then it is only right for you to learn our ways, and be glad that you don't need to learn another language."

"Well why did nobody explain that before instead of just bullying me?" demanded Myrtle.

"Because children do not always have the right words at their disposal to explain, my child, and because people _are_ prejudiced and saw you as wilfully ignorant," said Tiberius. "We will teach you to speak like a pureblood witch, and with a change of hairstyle to a modern look, presented as my granddaughter from … Canada … and nobody will realise that we have done an impossible ritual."

"Does it matter?"

"It matters that the headmaster is not fully trustworthy," said Tiberius, sharply.

"Dad said Professor Dumbledore smiled too much when he came to visit," said Myrtle.

"In some ways your father has been wise. I am sorry that his cynicism was too great to allow him to enjoy some time with you in his old age," sighed Tiberius.

"Thank you for giving me a new family. I … I will try to learn," said Myrtle.

"There's my good girl. And next term you will be hatted as a transfer student, as Sev's cousin," said Tiberius. "Your name is now Myrtle Prince."

That he planned to make the Evans parents his adoptive grandchildren and their daughters ritually Severus's sisters he did not plan on making as public as his new great granddaughter.

And with Myrtle floo'd back to the tender care of her new Aunt Eileen, term might come to an end, and the end of the year for the Marauders.

And next year, the youngest members would not be the youngest in the school any more, and would be ready to look out for Sirius' little brother Regulus, and keep him away from Death Eaters.

 **End of year one.**


End file.
